Posted on 01/28/2010 10:38:44 AM PST by Justaham
NEW YORK - J.D. Salinger, the legendary author, youth hero and fugitive from fame whose "The Catcher in the Rye" shocked and inspired a world he increasingly shunned, has died. He was 91.
Salinger died of natural causes at his home on Wednesday, the author's son said in a statement from Salinger's literary representative. He had lived for decades in self-imposed isolation in the small, remote house in Cornish, N.H.
"The Catcher in the Rye," with its immortal teenage protagonist, the twisted, rebellious Holden Caulfield, came out in 1951, a time of anxious, Cold War conformity and the dawn of modern adolescence. The Book-of-the-Month Club, which made "Catcher" a featured selection, advised that for "anyone who has ever brought up a son" the novel will be "a source of wonder and delight — and concern."
(Excerpt) Read more at today.msnbc.msn.com ...
A great writer has to be a nice guy? The book was a bestseller upon release years before it became school reading.
Why are you taking other people’s opinions so personally?
It is as if you think you can convince them that their opinion is wrong.
Some of us thought the book sucked. Period.
I’m discussing it logically. The post you responded was dealing in fact.
Didn’t like it either but from a girl’s perspective.
What I remember about Salinger is some inappropriate relationship with a young girl??
So I posted my response to the wrong post?
Touchy!
I guess I could have posted the same thing to every post of yours but that would be stupid. I just picked the most convenient one.
PS: The book still meant nothing to me and sucked.
Next try to convince me that Obama doesn’t suck.
Yeah, let’s give 13-16 year olds a book about a depressed and potentially suicidal teenager.
Compared to the garbage that is now being fed to that age group in private and public schools Catcher is pablum.
Go right ahead. My background is Literary studies and I welcome it. Salinger at his best was one of the best short story writers in the country and his passing deserves notice.
Not sure why JD gets to be called a great writer, regardless of whether he was a creep or not. His dark view of life was held out to young people who knew no better from farm country to suburbia to the big cities. CAtcher in the Rye meant nothing to me - I guess I am one of the lucky ones who was just too dense and naive to get it....if only 16 year olds were still as innocent.
Read his short stories. He was a very subtle writer. CITR does not glorify the character’s behavior. It’s all about him growing out of it.
Your response makes no sense and chastising others because they have an opinion about a book that you don’t agree with is foolish. Trying to change their mind is really foolish.
Face it Salinger may be the fourth Jonas Brother to you but he is not to me and many others.
I've gotten to the point where I almost expect the great books to be disappointing. I read Crime and Punishment not long ago and was like, what gives? Had to force my way through Moby Dick. Fauste -- dullsville and incoherent. Tried to get through one of Proust's classics, Madame Bovarie, because the prose was supposed to be so totally tweaked, but it was just too dull to be worth finishing. Homer's Odyssey -- stultifying. Besides being a source of lines that you can quote to prove you've read Shakespeare, I don't even find Shakespeare to be that interesting.
All in all, I've become kind of cynical about the whole great literature thing.
I’m not chastising anyone. On a message board you get back and forth discussions like this and most are a lot more contentious than this. I don’t know why you’re surprised by it now. I’m not trying to change anyone’s mind just to understand why they feel the way they do.
Oh, okay.......
The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Montserrat is one.
Patrick O’Brien, while technically not British.....
Other writers - Cornwell wrote some naval stories, too and have read him a little, whatever the local libraries have.
Another that comes to mind is the guy who wrote about the flyers of World War One.
Grew up on the Fantastic/Fabulous Five and the Secret Seven.
A big fan of PG Wodehouse, too. and who wrote the Billy Bunting series, lol, there’s an UNPC series, superficially speaking, at least but the fat one usually triumphed, IIRC.
And don’t forget Biggles! Or James Hadley Chase!
Post some choice picks of yours, always interested in good reads.
Just discovered John Woodman - The Santa Margarita circa 2008!
Let me recommend some classics or semi classics -
The CharterHouse of Parma by Stendhal.
Germinal by Emile Zola.
Oil by Upton Sinclair.
Salambo by Gustav Flaubert.
And the aforementioned The Gun.
There are new versions(a short one and the longer serial version) of War&Peace and the Odyssey on my list...... let’s see
OK, you may have convinced me to give him another shot.
But, is there any truth to JD Salinger and Thomas Pynchon being the same person :>>>
And there seems to be a trove of manuscripts Salinger wrote and never published.......
Salinger’s book impact may well have been lessened by the time it got to the 70’s, as in my case.
OK, you may have convinced me to give him another shot.
But, is there any truth to JD Salinger and Thomas Pynchon being the same person :>>>
And there seems to be a trove of manuscripts Salinger wrote and never published.......
Salinger’s book impact may well have been lessened by the time it got to the 70’s, as in my case.
Pynchon was a generation later and had a completely different writing style and outlook. Read Salinger’s Nine Stories; his best short fiction in one handy package. He was a D-Day Vet and had his share of demons.
Cornwell
Bernard Cromwell of the Sharpe series.
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