J.D. Salinger rememberance thread.

[BigGaayAl]

“I hope to hell that when I do die somebody has the sense to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetary. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody.”

“I was about half in love with her by the time we sat
down. That's the thing about girls. Every time they do something
pretty... you fall half in love with them, and then you never know
where the hell you are.”

etc etc.

Best writer of the 20th century in my book.

[SilentSunshine]

I will never forgive him for misuse of the unco poet's work.

Well, maybe I can, now that he's died.

January 27, 2010... perhaps there will eventually be books laid on his grave.

[Mech__Warrior]

Quick, throw him in the river.

The Catcher in The Rye was a good book, I should read it in remembrance of him.

[16Note]

I just read Catcher last semester, loved the book. What a loss.

[snooggums]

I haven't read any of his works due to simply choosing other books at the time that I was reading a lot of books. I do respect his opinions and hope to read some of his stuff sometime in the near future.

Are there other books or writings of his other than Catcher in the Rye that you guys would recommend?

[Spyder228]

I thought The Catcher in the Rye was a terrible book. Hated it in High School and hated it even more when I gave it another chance a few years ago. I do not see what all the hubbub was about.

[snooggums]

I thought The Catcher in the Rye was a terrible book. Hated it in High School and hated it even more when I gave it another chance a few years ago. I do not see what all the hubbub was about.

Most likely you had trouble identifying with the character's point of view. I can't stand The Great Gatsby because I don't care about rich, spoiled idiots. I loved Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut because of it's disjointed and unfocused narrative and I could sympathize with the protagonist's apparent confusion between reality and imagination.

[Sir-Nerd]

Most likely you had trouble identifying with the character's point of view. I can't stand The Great Gatsby because I don't care about rich, spoiled idiots. I loved Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut because of it's disjointed and unfocused narrative and I could sympathize with the protagonist's apparent confusion between reality and imagination.

I was the only person out of my class who liked Slaughterhouse Five. The quirkiness gave me a few laughs.

Catcher in Rye never really grew on me. My dad loved it though, he said you could take almost any sentence out of that book and make it into a quote.

[BigGaayAl]

My dad loved it though, he said you could take almost any sentence out of that book and make it into a quote.

Funny that is exactly how I describe it sometimes to friends. I suppose Snooggums is right. The book probably apeals to people that have a certain weltschmerz, some self-defeating narcissism, ambitions in life that differ from the standard ones,.... Well books have been written trying to word that I bet.

To me what speaks to me is just the way he thinks. Both the writer and the lead characters, which are different flavours of the same. I other words is the way he looks at the world. He is always looking at life as a stage-play, judging their performances an how convincing they are. 'Phonies' he calls the bad ones.

I also love how he merges the negative and the positive, iconically when he says 'it just kills me'. This happens a lot in the book and usually when he is deeply moved, or really loves something.

I could go on for long. Perhaps what puzzles me the most, is why this stupid book about a guy who runs away from school for 3 days in which nothing happens, seems to appeal so much to me. Perhaps I am as much unable to understand that, as you are unable to understand the absence of appeal. Whatever it is, its a funny book in that way, and oh... it kills me .

[Diplomatic_Immunity]

I thought of making a pilgrimage to his grave. Given Salinger's character it will probably be unmarked.

[sordavie]

One of the joys of reading well written literature is coming to empathize with characters that are really different than yourself or that you may not have cared for previously. In the case of The Great Gatsby, you may not care about rich, spoiled idiots but the novel isn't really about empathizing or identifying with the rich, spoiled idiots. It was Fitzgerald's critique of what he saw as the rich, materialistic, immoral culture of the roaring 20s. You're supposed to think "these guys are messed up." I can't say I ever really enjoyed reading it, but after coming to understand the message that the author was trying to convey, I've come to appreciate it.