Of course you read this book because you're interested in learning more about JD Salinger, not Margaret Salinger. But the book is HER memoir after all, so you hear a lot about her and other people who aren't JD Salinger. Some of it is really interesting..you'd probably like it if you like reading about growing-up (I assume you do, since you're a fan of Salinger). You hear about how she and her friends transistion from catching bugs and watching old films with her dad to wearing make-up, and going to dances, and listening to The Beatles and all of that good sutff. But some things are pretty uninteresting, too. Dream Catcher is odd, because the author's writing style changes frequently.
Sometimes it's incredibly flower and unnessecarily wordy and downright dumb (she spends a whole page talking about her favorite lifesaver flavors and things) and it can be really irritating. Then it will suddenly switch to a very bare and personal style. It almost felt like reading "The Catcher in the Rye" at times. There are also many, many random quotations (from "alice in wonderland", ancient poetry, ect) all over the book. At chapter heads, foot notes (of which there are nearly 2 every page, and generally very unnessecary information.), and in the text itself.
But what you'll learn about JD Salinger is pretty key. She definitley has a fresh perspective on the whole deal. She talks about how her father told her the same thing that Zooey tells Franny ("There's no major changes between 10 and 20, or 10 and 80, for that matter."), and it ends up with her being molested by a college student when she was around 10. She thought of him as her "boyfriend" because she wasn't taught that there's a big difference between fooling around with boys her age and much older boys. Another time she writes about she and her father getting into an arguement when she was a very small child, and him telling her, "We'd better find a way to make this up, because once someone loses my respect for someone, that's it. We're through." She writes she has to constantly put on a front for her father; she has to be like Phoebe, Holden's perfect sister, or he'll become furious with her.
Margaret Salinger offers a lot of new perspectives on JD Salinger's philosophy. She is pretty blunt about it, calling her father's stories unrealistic and incredibly simplified. She talks about becoming angry at adults who agree with the things her father says, wondering how they can be so immature.
JD Salinger, according to Margaret, was also cruel to her mother. Keeping her a "virtual prisoner" in their tiny cabin in the deep country, and forcing her to adopt all of his constantly changing and demanding religious practices. Refusing to let her have any money to buy new clothes even when she needed them, because he thought women were vain and sinful and didn't want to encourage it. According to her mother, JD Salinger went out of his way to make her life terrible; (refusing an invite to dine with President Kennedy because she wanted to.)
He does seem to have real issues with women. Margaret writes about her coming home from camp, and wearing a new swimsuit. Her father is disgusted to see her breasts have started to develop. He gets angry when she shows even a slight interest in fashionable clothes.
I guess a lot of people who read this book disliked it because it painted such a negative view of JD Salinger (unrealistic, abusive, racist/sexist, control freak) but despite being a huge fan of JD Salinger, I thought it was really interesting. It certainly adds a new and complex twist to my thoughts when I read his books. As much as we love to read about the Glass family and all, couldn't it actually be incredibly traumatic to not give children the guidance and reality they need? Didn't JD Salinger write these books without having any idea of what children were actually like? And I guess this book answers those questions. Margaret Salinger and her brother went through a lot of unnessecary pain because of her father's unrealistic philosophy on children and life.
It's all really fascinating, if you don't mind me being sort of blunt.
