The Catcher in the Rye
J. D. Salinger, 1951
A prep-school dropout drifts through New York for a few days, allergic to phonies and desperate to protect someone younger.
J. D. Salinger
Salinger writes about people who talk too much because they are afraid of what they might say plainly, and the three books here share that nervous, funny, tender air. Start with «The Catcher in the Hold» if you want the loosest and most restless of them, a few days of drifting and irritation and protectiveness; choose «Franny and Zooey» if you would rather sit inside a family argument about how to live without faking it.
Feels like family, tenderness and faith.
Start with The Catcher in the Rye.
Salinger refused to sell the film rights to The Catcher in the Rye; it has never been officially adapted, though its title has been borrowed many times.
The only job that feels worth doing, and why it can't be real.
Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around — nobody big, I mean — except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff — I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye, and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be. I know it’s crazy. Books by J. D. Salinger
Franny and Zooey
J. D. Salinger, 1961
A college actress and her brother argue about prayer, applause and how to be a person without performing one.
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters
J. D. Salinger, 1963
Salinger's Glass family at their funniest and most tender: a wedding morning, a borrowed diary, and the memory of the brother they all measure themselves against.
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