Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I would be interested in hearing any comments from forum readers about J.D.Salinger's writing: his style and his subject matter, how you interpret him as a contributor in the literary world, etc. If you appreciate his writing, why? If not, why?
I think I missed understanding or getting what he was about completely in prep school. HE gets mentioned a lot, but I am more interested in his writing.

I like Salinger.

Catcher is a very good first-person novel. Half of the 9 stories are great too.

He might be the first modern young adult author. No vampires or wizards; just smoking, cursing, chasing girls, and drinking.

I approve.

Well said, imho.

steve wrote:I like Salinger.
....
He might be the first modern young adult author. No vampires or wizards; just smoking, cursing, chasing girls, and drinking.
I approve.

I saw this quote in the latest Writer's Digest and thought of your question.

"You can't write teenage narrators as much as I do and not think of Salinger. Holden Caulfield's built-in BS meter is exactly the reason I include so many teens in my books -- they keep everyone else in your story honest."

-- Jodi Picoult

Well, if you take Catcher for example, Salinger authentically captured that transition between childhood and adulthood without providing an easy answer by the end about how to best cope with it. It's unsettling, but that's what's true about it. That's one reason it continues to be an important book.

FYI, this week's Newsweek has a glimpse at a new documentary and an 800-page biography called THE PRIVATE WAR OF J.D. SALINGER that Shane Salerno (director of SHAFT) is apparently working on. David Shields (REALITY HUNGER) is co-writing the biography as well. Sounds interesting...

steve wrote:I like Salinger.

He might be the first modern young adult author. No vampires or wizards; just smoking, cursing, chasing girls, and drinking.

Yes. This.

I did not like Catcher the first time I was forced to read it in high school. I didn't become Catcher obsessed until I read it on my own my senior year (and again 2 years later. And again when he died.) I can't even say for sure what it was that did me in, but there is something new to discover in those pages that illuminates a part of your own life in a way you couldn't have understood without Holden. I don't know. It's one of those books that morphs in different ways depending on the reader and what they need most in their life right at that moment. Like a literary magic 8 ball.

I've reread Frannie and Zoey so many times. And my favorite phrase ever is "prenotification of death".