Judge blocks publication of Salinger spinoff book

Yahoo - AP ^ | 07/01/09 | LARRY NEUMEISTER

[Borges]

NEW YORK – A Swedish author whose new book was promoted as a sequel to J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" cannot publish it in the United States because it too closely mirrors Salinger's classic without adequate parody or critique, a judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts issued her written ruling in Manhattan after considering arguments in a lawsuit brought by the 90-year-old reclusive author against the publishers of "60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye."

Batts said Swedish author Fredrik Colting had "taken well more from `Catcher,' in both substance and style, than is necessary for the alleged transformative purpose of criticizing Salinger and his attitudes and behavior."

She said Colting's claim that he also wrote the book to critically examine Salinger's most famous character, Holden Caulfield, was "problematic and lacking in credibility."

She also rejected arguments that the depiction of a character in Colting's book to represent Caulfield 60 years later was a parody. She said in a footnote that Colting and his publishers made no indication before the lawsuit was filed that the book was meant as a parody or critique of Salinger's work.

"Quite to the contrary, the original jacket of '60 Years' states that it is '... a marvelous sequel to one of our most beloved classics,'" the judge said. "It is simply not credible for defendant Colting to assert now that this primary purpose was to critique Salinger and his persona."

A lawyer for Colting and SCB Distributors Inc., which would distribute the book in the United States, said the defendants were "very disappointed that the judge chose to ban Mr. Colting's book."

[B-Chan]

Phony!

[cynwoody]

Available from amazon.co.uk for £5.99.