OK: J.D. Salinger...

[Medea]

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...

haver never heard salinger is object of derision.i like his work

Have you read his biography by his daughter Margaret? Its interesting.

I think his stuff is just rather trite really, and very self indulgent. I loved franny and zooey when I was about 15, and still have a copy that reeks of golden virginia, but tried to re-read it recently-its whingy teenage stuff, it really is.(the book btw, not the lovely MN poster )

I do think his short stories (for esme.../raise high the roof beans) are very good, though a close reading of for esme...suggests that nearly every bloody atory in the is about the stunningly up-their-own-arses Glass family.

i read cathcer a few months ago - it was truly the biggest pile of wank i had ever read.

totally adds tot he shooting after reading it credentials - i wanted to bloody throttle someone after wasting hours on that

best read when you're out of your mind on dope and speed

I agree with the assertion that it's whingy teenage stuff tbh. Although I have only read CITR, For Esme.... and F&Z to base this thinking on.

Perhaps I only liked it because I was a wingey teenager when I read him. Think I need to take another look.

don't think i'd waste good speed on it astra

its a teenage boy thing

Salinger's books are fab imo.

For Esme with Love and Squalor is a lesser known book but I likl it.

I think of CITR as a precursor to Amis' 'The Rachel Papers' and indeed many teenage novels. Ditto Skinhead/Suedehead. Or even Tracey Beaker.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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!

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

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 ...

laid back, nice, out of their minds

its not really the earnestness nqc

its the self-importance

and the latent republicanness

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 ...)

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

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.)

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