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J.D. Salinger dies at 91

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Garpal Gumnut

Garpal Gumnut

Ross Island Hotel
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Salinger has passed away. I read Catcher in the Rye when I was 13. What an experience.

Any of you guys/gals who haven't read it should.



JD Salinger
JD Salinger, who has died aged 91, was the American author who was catapulted to fame in 1951 with the publication of a short novel, The Catcher in the Rye, which has become the treasured handbook of alienation for generations of angst-ridden teenagers.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obi...ies/books-obituaries/7096097/JD-Salinger.html


gg
 
Not exactly in the same league, but Robert B Parker, author of the Spenser novels, died last week.

<sigh>
 
Atlas79 said:
One of the most overrated bits of "literature" ever forced on schoolkids. IMHO.
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Read it again mate, you may have been too mature when you first read it.

If you were forced to read it , then that is an abomination, I agree.

You're not from North Korea or a godbotherer are you?

Forcing kids to read things is not the way to get them to appreciate the contents.

gg
 
I read it as an adult and did not find the least bit cutting edge or important a trust fund baby's running away for 24 hours, encountering no situations that would make the nightly news if they happened in real life, and decrying the adult world to be "phony". (Not from N Korea nor do I bother God. I hope, anyway. You'd have to ask him, her or it.) And I disagree. If you can force kids to eat veggies, you can force upon them books that will do them some good too.
 
I really rated his short stories, "For Esmé - with Love and Squalor, and Other Stories"
Just something a little disturbing about them...something lurking behind the story
similar to "To Kill a Mockingbird"
But on the other hand "Catcher in the Rye" never did much for me, but like you say G.G sometimes it depends on when you read a book and what you take away from it.
I Remember reading Updikes "Run Rabitt Run" and initially I thought it was rubbish - just seemed to be a story about everyday life but when you read it ten years later, it reads like a book of someone looking back at you ten years ago....(does that make sense.???)
:2twocents
 
Howard Zinn popped his cloggs at 87, within a day or so Salinger, with a fairly balanced obit in the NYtimes, no doubt with a cheer from those who also fear Chomsky. They were young once 'But that was then this is now'...
 
ghotib said:
Not exactly in the same league, but Robert B Parker, author of the Spenser novels, died last week.

<sigh>
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I echo your sigh, Ghoti. Mr Parker's novels kept me entertained when nothing else could.


kgee said:
I really rated his short stories, "For Esmé - with Love and Squalor, and Other Stories"
Just something a little disturbing about them...something lurking behind the story
similar to "To Kill a Mockingbird"
But on the other hand "Catcher in the Rye" never did much for me, but like you say G.G sometimes it depends on when you read a book and what you take away from it.
I Remember reading Updikes "Run Rabitt Run" and initially I thought it was rubbish - just seemed to be a story about everyday life but when you read it ten years later, it reads like a book of someone looking back at you ten years ago....(does that make sense.???)
:2twocents
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Makes complete sense, kgee. I re-read "Catcher in the Rye" about a year ago and realised how much our social environment has changed. Holden Caulfield was probably one of the first anti-heroes. Since then, of course, they're too common to be interesting.
Also, the language in those days made the book a stand-out.
 
I am with you GG. That book stuck in my memory for years. It was as weird as its author proved to be in real life. I did English Lit at school (which was one of my greatest scholastic mistakes and had to read that book). The best bit about the class was it was jam packed with all the best looking chicks. And only about 5 of us lads.

Catcher had one of my most favourite quotes..
"As sensitive as a toilet seat"
Loved it and is the only book I have re-read.
 
Like Julia, I only read Catcher about a year ago. One weird mother of a book, on the surface an anti-social phony declarer, the deeper you go the weirder Holden was. A true reflection of life and society, past, present and future.
 
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