Dream Catcher: A Memoir [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Margaret A. Salinger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 6, 2000

"My childhood was lush with make-believe: wood sprites, fairies, a bower of imaginary friends, books about lands somewhere East of the Sun and West of the Moon...

In real life, however, it was a world that dangled between dream and nightmare on a gossamer thread my parents wove, without the reality of solid ground to catch a body should he or she fall."

In her much-anticipated memoir, Margaret A. Salinger writes about life with her famously reclusive father, J.D. Salinger -- offering a rare look into the man and the myth, what it is like to be his daughter, and the effect of such a charismatic figure on the girls and women closest to him.

Dream Catcher

With generosity and insight, Ms. Salinger has written a book that is eloquent, spellbinding, and wise, yet at the same time retains the intimacy of a novel. Her story chronicles an almost cultlike environment of extreme isolation and early neglect interwoven with times of laughter, joy, and dazzling beauty. She also delves into her parents' lives before her own birth, illuminating their childhoods, their wrenching experiences during World War II, and above all the seeds and real-life inspirations for J.D. Salinger's literary preoccupation with "phonies," protracted innocence, precocious children, and spiritual perfection.

Ms. Salinger compassionately explores the complex dynamics of family relationships. Her story is one that seeks to come to terms with the dark parts of her life that, quite literally, nearly killed her, and to pass on a life-affirming heritage to her own child.

The story of being a Salinger is unique; the story of being a daughter is universal. This book appeals to anyone, J.D. Salinger fan orno, who has ever had to struggle to sort out who she really is from who her parentsdreamed she might be.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In her memoir Dream Catcher, Margaret Salinger--who is, as everyone and their cat must surely now know, the daughter of writer and recluse J.D. Salinger--describes a childhood of unbelievable isolation and emotional stress, "lush with make-believe," "a world both terrible and beautiful ... that dangled between dream and nightmare on a gossamer thread." What she's describing, of course, is madness, first incipient and then in hothouse cultivation. In fact, just reading about it made this reviewer feel like her f-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s were not quite intact. What was it like to grow up with a father whose love for children amounted almost to a religion? Well, for one thing, there were always those impossibly swell fictional kids around to make you look bad. (J.D. actually wanted to call his daughter Phoebe, after the sister in The Catcher in the Rye.) Worse, though, it meant being forced to sacrifice her childhood on the altar of Daddy's saintliness. She quotes the famous paragraph in which Holden envisions standing guard to catch little children from going over a cliff. "When I read this passage as an adult with a child of my own, my first reaction was outrage.... Where are the grown-ups? Why are those kids allowed to play so close to the edge of a cliff?" Salinger's reaction might be literal-minded, but it contains considerable truth--especially considering that she herself went over that cliff once or twice, and ol' J.D. certainly wasn't around to catch anybody.

When it comes to the ethics of writing a book about the experience, of course, friends must agree to let friends disagree. No one can deny that Salinger's account is balanced, thorough, and honest--sometimes to a fault. Moreoever, it's clear that Peggy Salinger is an admirable person, who has fought long and hard to attain the level of happiness and understanding that made the writing of this memoir possible. And yet, there's also no denying that her book cries out for a strong editing hand. Reading it feels like watching someone sort out complicated feelings in front of you: compelling, certainly, but also a little voyeuristic, and more than occasionally digressive. Salinger's analysis of her father seems psychologically (and literarily) acute, but--urine-drinking aside--there's nothing she tells us about his character that a diligent reader of his books doesn't instinctively know. "Get what you can from his writing, his stories," Salinger writes, "but the author himself will not appear out of nowhere to catch those kids if they get too close to that crazy cliff." Did anyone think he would? Dream Catcher is written by the only person who had the right to expect such a thing. Sadly, his fictional creations, those wise children, were given his best self, and his daughter was left with the rest. --Mary Park

From Booklist

And J. D.'s daughter demands her 15 minutes. Bonnie Smothers
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Washington Square Press; First Edition edition (September 6, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671042815
• ISBN-13: 978-0671042813
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,173,250 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Margaret A. Salinger earned her B.A. from Brandeis University summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa; earned an M.Phil. from Oxford University; and attended Harvard Divinity School as a Williams Scholar. She lives with her husband and son.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Digressive but Fascinating Book, November 25, 2000

By 

James J. Lundy Jr. (Charleston, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dream Catcher: A Memoir (Hardcover)

I bought this book to learn more about one of my favorite authors, JDS, and the book starts out like a biography of the man, sure enough. It's even a bit overly scholarly at first (footnotes, analysis of Jewish life in America, etc.) and I thought it was going to turn into a tedious read... But the book changes form several times as Peggy excorcises her demons and finds new reasons to keep writing it. You might have heard some of the debate of the ethics of writing this book while her old man is still alive. But, ultimately this book is about Peggy Salinger and not about JD. She is a troubled, deeply scarred woman who finally makes peace with herself and her father through the writing of this book, and that cathartic process unfolds beautifully as you read.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars DEAR BESSIE, LES, BEATRICE, WALTER, AND WAKER, January 14, 2007

By 

11111 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dream Catcher: A Memoir (Paperback)

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.

49 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating mess, December 30, 2001

By 

Eric Krupin (Salt Lake City, UT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dream Catcher: A Memoir (Paperback)

The real proof of this book's quality is that it would still be an absorbing and uncommonly well-written memoir of a seriously screwed-up childhood even if no one had ever heard of J.D. Salinger. Of course, it would never have been published either, so let's get down to brass tacks. As an "expose" of The Creep Behind The Artist, the prosecution is scattershot (there's a wearisomely prolonged and ultimately unconvincing effort to define him as an actual cult leader of sorts) but eventually sways the jury. And unlike the unsympathetic Joyce Maynard, who managed to cash in with her story first, Margaret Salinger seems to me fully entitled to whatever degree of payback this book represents. (It's not a hatchet job but she's not afraid to let hard-earned bitterness show at times.) When, as a teenager, she finally begins to see his toxicity as a parent and writes in her diary, ...it's a real stand-up-and-cheer moment.

However, it must be acknowledged that the book is in desperate need of strong editing. The indiscriminate inclusiveness (i.e. the complete text of notes passed in junior high school) and irritatingly pointless footnotes (i.e. explaining where the chapter heading "To Sir With Love" comes from) are unfortunate deterrents to appreciating this book on its considerable merits.