His other stuff is neglected.
We talk too much about one classic book and we don’t re-read the other novellas about the Glass family, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters (1955),
Seymour : An Introduction (1959) and Franny and Zooey (1961).
His garrulous,self-interrupting prose and clever dialogue seem to ramble but, in fact, J.D. Salinger is an artful modern master who never wastes a phrase.
His intimate, educated, stream-of-consciousness chatter was a very distinctive, daring new voice, and he was a huge influence on future fiction writers, right up to Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre. Not always a good influence, it has to be said.
I read all of Salinger’s books several times, as many grammar school lads did.
My wife Jan insists that Catcher In The Rye (1951) is a boy’s book but our daughter liked it a lot. OK, men and women have always liked different books because men are very different to women. But Caroline’s a bit like me. She also loved Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas.
Last night Paul Morley said on Newsnight Review that, “Teenagers today will not recognise that teenager.”
Don’t agree with Paul on that.
Catcher In The Rye is a twentieth century classic which will be live on and on. It’s not a period piece.
Salinger, a recluse and an eccentric, has not published anything since 1965.
But he has written 15 unpublished novels. I hope one of those may be published in the near future.
Jerome David Salinger was 91 when he died.
CORRECTION : Caroline called last night.
She said she’d read Salinger’s obit in The Observer. I admitted I had written a few lines here.
” I can’t believe how deluded you are ! Dad, I hated it ! I thought it was the most self-indulgent, ridiculous, blokey crap I’ve ever read. I nearly didn’t read Catch-22 cos you recommended it. I can’t believe you told the world I like Salinger ! “