Black Lamb

A Week in Literary History

January 1st, 2002

American writer J.D. Salinger (Catcher in the Rye, 1951) is born in New York City.

Jerome David Salinger, b. January 1, 1919

To return to Salinger’s slender body of work once youth is no longer fresh is to feel the keen bite of aging. Catcher in the Rye, admittedly, almost transcends its naïveté. Poor Holden Caulfield’s voice is so engaging, it doesn’t matter that he goes beyond being a disaffected kid to becoming a textbook nut case. But in the Glass family tales, one gags on the treacly Buddhism no matter how perky the prose. Those siblings, the imperishable companions of one’s late adolescence — hysterical Franny, lecturing Zooey, kindly Buddy, and inscrutable Seymour — are simply unbearable to all but the most credulous. Keep the books, by all means, to pass along to your own teenagers. But don’t reread them.

Suggested Reading Novels Catcher in the Rye, 1951. Franny and Zooey, 1961. Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters, and Seymour: An Introduction, 1963. Stories Nine Stories, 1953. Complete Uncollected Short Stories, 1974.

Posted by: The Editors
Category: A Week in Literary History, Books and Authors | Link to this Entry