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Original poster

OK: J.D. Salinger...

58 replies

Medea · 03/01/2009 19:53

Why do so many mumsnettersand British people in generalseem to dislike him?

I'm obsessed with his books and read them again and again, particularly 9 Stories and Franny & Zooey. He turned 90 last week; he's still in seclusion; I'm just DYING to know if he has some manuscripts locked away in a safe.

But everytime he's turned up on the adult fiction mumsnet topic he gets slated. Would love to know what you object to...

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violethill · 23/01/2009 11:14

Love Salinger.

Those short stories.... perfection.

And when I was 16 I wanted to be Franny - beautiful shiny black hair, a whacky interesting family and that rather hunky boyfriend.

lalalonglegs · 20/01/2009 20:41

Raise High the Roofbeam, I mean

lalalonglegs · 20/01/2009 20:40

I loved Catcher as a teenager but haven't dared to read it again recently. I think Esme is even better. Very about Franny and Raise the Rooftops...

Ipanemagirl - stop mumsnetting and read Mockingbird immediately.

elle23 · 20/01/2009 20:35

read catcher in the rye @ 22 & was extremely disappointed. a friend pointed out I may have loved it had I read it five or six years earlier. It's put me off reading any of his other work...

boogiewoogie · 08/01/2009 22:27

One day I will bother using preview message. No "was" before hated.

boogiewoogie · 08/01/2009 22:26

I must be in the minority here but I was hated CITR. Nothing happens! Holden is a phoney and a pervert himself! He's irritating and I really resented having to finish it. Sorry! Boogie quickly ducks and runs!

sleepycat · 06/01/2009 21:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ipanemagirl · 06/01/2009 21:52

I feel SO bad that I've never read CITR. I've picked it up loads of times but never actually read it. Just like To kill a mockingbird. I'm appalled at myself and will not respect myself in the morning.

Threadworm · 06/01/2009 16:06

For years after I read it I had an internal running commentary about every 'goddamn cheesy rubbernecking sonofabitch' that crossed my path.

bingodad · 06/01/2009 16:01

I read CITR when I was 16. It was the first book I fell in love with. Eversince I've divided the world into phonies and non-phonies - not a particularly healthy pastime considering everyone's a little bit phoney really.

(I'm new so forgive me if it's not the doen thing to jump right in.)

Bluestocking · 04/01/2009 17:50

Does JDS count as a beat poet? I wouldn't have guessed.

NotQuiteCockney · 04/01/2009 17:10

I don't see the republicanness ...

Yes, to the self-importance, and not seeing how 'funny' oneself is - no sense of self-mockery.

(Um ... speaking of earnestness ... you're quite earnest for an English person ...)

Fillyjonk · 04/01/2009 08:44

its not really the earnestness nqc

its the self-importance

and the latent republicanness

southeastastra · 03/01/2009 22:17

laid back, nice, out of their minds

NotQuiteCockney · 03/01/2009 22:16

Where's Frances? At least one Brit likes him well enough to have named herself after one of this books?

I don't like CITR that much. Love all the rest.

He is very American, though, in his voice and style. I think it maybe sounds fake to the British ear?

Also, he's terribly earnest. Earnestness (earnestitude? ) is a cardinal sin in the UK ...

pointydog · 03/01/2009 22:14

I read CITR recedntly and still loved it. Loved the honest cynicism. Loved the bleak atmosphere.

bagsforlife · 03/01/2009 22:10

But you have to remember it is 'of it's time'. Catcher in the Rye was written before A Teenager even existed in the UK, so was groundbreaking stuff. Having been force fed classic novels when I was a teen in the 70s, Catcher in the Rye was an exciting read and gave me a lifelong love of reading which had hitherto been unleashed!

southeastastra · 03/01/2009 21:45

on the road was another good groovy beatnik novel jazzzzz nice....

Threadworm · 03/01/2009 21:43

I was quite a bit younger than the protagonist when I read CITR so I found him rather cool and sophisticated. But even so, the tone of the book (the voice of the narrator character) was so plaintive, so earnestly wanting to be liked and understood and held, that it makes me tearful now to think of it.

It is that tone I remember it for. I can't thin of another book that has that sustainedly sad voice.

LiffeyAnnaLivia · 03/01/2009 21:43

I went through a phase like HOlden where I was a bit negative and critical of everything.

Martin Amis is Dog with a typewriter. An articulate misogynist. Eurhghg.

Mercy · 03/01/2009 21:42

He only wrote a few novels so any will do!

I think his books need to be read in the context of the time in which they were written, for example CITR was published in 1951.

Ditto William Bouroughs, his journals are really intersting

WhatSheSaid · 03/01/2009 21:40

I still like them, maybe I'm a 37 year old whingy teenager .

WhatSheSaid · 03/01/2009 21:38

Nfk - all his other books are short stories/novellas. I'd recommend them all.

For Esme with love and squalor (also known as 9 Stories, I think?)
Franny and Zooey
Raise High the Roofbeam Carpenters/Seymour: An Introduction (actually, Sseymour is a bit of a self-indulgent ramble)

I think that's the lot. Any more I've missed, anyone?

There are theories he has written loads more but they are all locked away in a safe somewhere, he stopped publishing as he hated fame, allegedly.

southeastastra · 03/01/2009 21:37

i remember enjoying reading it but maybe i'm happy being a boy racer

nkf · 03/01/2009 21:29

Do Brits hate him? I've only read Catcher in the Rye which I rate. What else should I try?