Author: J.D. SalingerYear: 1953
Despite having only four books available for purchase, Salinger is a legend among writers. There is something about his work that inspires obsession. Widely praised for The Catcher in the Rye, he is more fanatically followed by devotees of the pieced-together Glass Family stories. But what is it about his humble prose and simple (or non-existent) plots that garners so much attention? Nine Stories is book-ended by two pieces steeped in mystery. These stories, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” and “Teddy” are simultaneously exuberant and despairingly haunted. They describe events with clear surface drama, but underneath swarm layers, if not worlds, of gloomy implication and wonderment. Perhaps you can tell that I don’t want to divulge too much detail…
In between you get a rather hit-or-miss assortment. The middle of the collection features the best stories: “The Laughing Man” is a bittersweet account of a “Comanche Club” youth group and their yarn-spinning counselor; “Down at the Dinghy” is a simple and touching account of a mother and her son; and “For Esme – With Love and Squalor” is Salinger’s brief epic of a soldier’s meeting with a precocious thirteen-year old days before shipping off for the Normandy Invasion. Unfortunately, these stellar tales (along with the hilarious “De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period”) are balanced with pointless disinterested pieces like “Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes.”
As usual, Salinger’s primary focus is the meeting of adolescence and adulthood; nearly every story in the collection focuses on these contrasting viewpoints. Once again, the two bookend stories provide the keenest insight into Salinger’s ideas on the matter. In “Bananafish,” Seymour Glass tells his young companion a quirky story about a peculiar fish that retreats into its undersea cave, then eats too many bananas and gets too fat to ever come out again. A metaphor for the loss of freedom and innocence upon the entrance into adulthood, Salinger expands upon this theme in “Teddy” where the titular character theorizes that the only way for people to return to their original state of being is to “vomit up” as much of the apple of original sin (in Teddy’s view, this represents reason and logic) as possible. For Salinger fans, this collection is a must-read (especially since two of the stories deal directly with Glass Family members, while a third makes extensive reference to one). Even for Holden Caulfield haters, these should be enough honesty and beauty in these stories to make the short read highly worthwhile.
In between you get a rather hit-or-miss assortment. The middle of the collection features the best stories: “The Laughing Man” is a bittersweet account of a “Comanche Club” youth group and their yarn-spinning counselor; “Down at the Dinghy” is a simple and touching account of a mother and her son; and “For Esme – With Love and Squalor” is Salinger’s brief epic of a soldier’s meeting with a precocious thirteen-year old days before shipping off for the Normandy Invasion. Unfortunately, these stellar tales (along with the hilarious “De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period”) are balanced with pointless disinterested pieces like “Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes.”
As usual, Salinger’s primary focus is the meeting of adolescence and adulthood; nearly every story in the collection focuses on these contrasting viewpoints. Once again, the two bookend stories provide the keenest insight into Salinger’s ideas on the matter. In “Bananafish,” Seymour Glass tells his young companion a quirky story about a peculiar fish that retreats into its undersea cave, then eats too many bananas and gets too fat to ever come out again. A metaphor for the loss of freedom and innocence upon the entrance into adulthood, Salinger expands upon this theme in “Teddy” where the titular character theorizes that the only way for people to return to their original state of being is to “vomit up” as much of the apple of original sin (in Teddy’s view, this represents reason and logic) as possible. For Salinger fans, this collection is a must-read (especially since two of the stories deal directly with Glass Family members, while a third makes extensive reference to one). Even for Holden Caulfield haters, these should be enough honesty and beauty in these stories to make the short read highly worthwhile.
Value: Brass
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