Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

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...

OP posts:
Original poster
Medea · 03/01/2009 20:10

Yes but you're American expat! Although Salinger annoys lots of people in America, but they seem to appreciate him a bit more.

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 03/01/2009 20:09

I quite like him myself as well. I find him rather refreshing.

expatinscotland · 03/01/2009 20:08

He's hard to catergorize, particularly given the era in which much of his better-known work was published. I don't know how much of this is just him as a writer or the time and place in which he wrote much of his work.

As a result, his brand of story-telling and of expressing himself through writing stands somewhat apart from much of what was coming out of the UK at the same time.

This to me seems perhaps an explanation as to why he's reviled in some places?

Original poster
Medea · 03/01/2009 20:08

So glad you like him Jux and FiveGoMadInDorset, that's great.

OP posts:
Original poster
Medea · 03/01/2009 20:07

Describe vile American pretentiousness?

Americans object to a certain brand of British intellectual snobbery which they'd deem pretentious...

So what's the American version of pretentiousness from a Brit's eye? To me, Americans don't seem pretentious; they seem, on the contrary, maybe buffoonish and loud and materialistic, but actually quite "earnest" andin factthey themselves object to pretension because Americans in general are anti-elitism. (Think of typical middle America: absolutely no pretention there--just friendliness and an utter lack of irony.)

I think the GLASS family can come across as pretentious but the point is that they're weird and eccentric and ultra brilliant and, yes, spout pretentious stuff, but believe in authenticity. So please be more specific...

OP posts:
FiveGoMadInDorset · 03/01/2009 20:06

I love him.

Jux · 03/01/2009 20:06

Actually I love JDSalinger and have read his books over and over. They are, to me, filled with hope for a better world and I find them quite uplifting. I don't quite know what Bluestocking is referring to.

Bluestocking · 03/01/2009 19:56

Because his books are an ode to vile American pretentiousness of a brand peculiarly distressing to British people of a certain disposition?