With Love and Squalor: 14 Writers Respond to the Work of J.D. Salinger [Paperback]

Kip Kotzen (Author), Thomas Beller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 16, 2001

Reading The Catcher in the Rye has become a rite of passage for young Americans, landing the book on bestseller lists (and banned book lists) each year, even though it was published a half century ago. What is it about J. D. Salinger and his body of work that has left such a lasting mark on American fiction? And who better to answer that question than the current generation of writers?

Here are fourteen of the most vital voices in the contemporary American fiction scene pulling no punches in response to a writer who continues to beguile, charm, fascinate, and frustrate generations of readers. Contributors Walter Kirn, Ren? Steinke, Charles D’Ambrosio, Emma Forrest, Aleksander Hemon, Lucinda Rosenfeld, Amy Sohn, John McNally, Karen E. Bender, Thomas Beller, Benjamin Anastas, Aimee Bender, Joel Stein, and Jane Mendelsohn turn themselves inside out as they discuss their personal reactions to reading Salinger classics–not only The Catcher in the Rye but also Franny and Zooey, Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters, and the short stories–and explore, with begrudging gratitude, how Salinger helped to form the deepest reaches of their literary imaginations.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

J.D. Salinger hasn't published a word of fiction since 1965, and his silence casts a shadow over With Love and Squalor, a collection featuring 14 contemporary writers riffing on the works of the famously reclusive author. Unlike several less-than-flattering accounts of Salinger's life published in recent years, this book is more about the writing than the writer. John McNally spends some time with The Catcher in the Rye's memorable minor characters in "The Boy That Had Created the Disturbance," while in "An Unexamined Life," Benjamin Anastas is inspired to reread Salinger after being branded as Salingeresque in the jacket blurbs of his own first novel. In "The Salinger Weather," coeditor Thomas Beller confronts a Salinger-reading stranger on the subway and experiences a "random city bonding moment." A real standout, though, is Aimee Bender's "Holden Schmolden." She wonderfully captures that moment of first discovering Catcher:

Reading it made me realize that even though he had been discovered ad nauseam by the world, one of the magical feelings about reading J.D. Salinger was that you, yourself, felt like you were discovering this writer for the first time and had made him yours in the discovery. Salinger invites possessiveness, in the best way.

Salinger fans should appreciate this uneven tribute album, even though there are a few tracks worth skipping. --Brad Thomas Parsons

From Publishers Weekly

Fourteen writers reflect on the impact of J.D. Salinger's oeuvre on their lives and work in With Love and Squalor, edited by literary agent Kip Kotzen and Open City founding editor Thomas Beller (The Sleepover Artist). Walter Kirn recalls having Catcher in the Rye snatched from his hands and hurled across the college dining hall immediately after John Lennon's murder by Mark David Chapman; Chapman believed the book gave him permission for the killing. Emma Forrest describes her effort to become the kind of young person " `invented' in the fifties by the two J.D.s Salinger and James Dean" in order to deliver the goods to her newspaper editor. Lucinda Rosenfeld weighs Franny and Zooey's unimpressive rebellions against what she sees as the nearly perfect prose of their eponymous book.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Broadway; 1 edition (October 16, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076790799X
• ISBN-13: 978-0767907996
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.5 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,039,271 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Thomas Beller was born and raised in New York City. He has worked as Chief-of-Inventory at H&H Bagels (Broadway and 80th Street) and a staff writer at the New Yorker, the two jobs briefly overlapping. Other jobs include Bike Messenger and contributing writer to Elle, The Cambodia Daily, Spin, and Travel and Leisure Magazine. He founded and co-edited Open City Magazine for its twenty year run, and created a website, Mrbellersneighborhood.com, devoted to the urban sketch. He lives in New York and New Orleans, where he teaches at Tulane University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Revisting Holden & the Glass Gang, July 26, 2002

By 

sweetmolly (RICHMOND, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: With Love and Squalor: 14 Writers Respond to the Work of J.D. Salinger (Paperback)

It was a pleasure to see a book published about J.D. Salinger's writing as opposed to a tell-all about the famous recluse. The editors sent the call out to young (or youngish) writers for their take on JDS.

Essays by Walter Kirn and Renee Steinke were delightful views of meeting up with Holden Caulfield from an entirely different background than the New York, prep, affluent Salinger character. Mr. Kirn hails from a small town in MN and thought of Holden as a dashing sophisticated fellow while Ms. Steinke is a preacher's daughter from Friendswood, TX and saw Holden as a fellow outsider. These were fond and enlightening essays that showed "Catcher in the Rye" was without boundaries.

Lucinda Rosenfeld's "The Trouble With Franny" takes an in-depth look at Franny Glass and how perceptions change when rereading as an adult. John McNally does an excellent job in discussing and illustrating the minor characters in JDS's work and how perfect the brevity and broad brush make even once-mentioned characters memorable. Co-editor Thomas Beller made me think about what it's like to live in "Salinger Weather," a closely reasoned, brilliant piece written with brio! Jane Mendelsohn has an achingly sensitive article, "Holden Caulfield: A Love Story," about how her first take on Holden was a romantic crush, but deepened into a bemused love as she gradually saw the tragedy and despair of Holden.

According to the Introduction, the writers were given carte blanche. Herein lies a problem. Some of the essayists took this to mean a great deal of talk about themselves with the merest nod to J. D. Salinger. One contribution was a fairish "New Yorker" type short story that had the heroine carrying a copy of "Franny & Zooey" as the sole link that I could see to the author. Another most unpleasant young lady was very proud of being young (a temporary condition at best), and allowed as to how she might give Holden a go.

As all the writers are professionals, I was unhappy with the amount of self-indulgence displayed in some (but not all) of the articles. Almost all of the writers were introduced to Salinger as required reading in the 8th or 9th grade. Perhaps that is part of the problem. Discovery by oneself is a much more powerful way to meet a new author, and your insights are your own.

The five excellent essays and a couple more I would rate as good workmanlike jobs make "With Love and Squalor" a good choice for a true Salinger lover.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More love than squalor, January 5, 2002

By 

QTeacher "qteacher" (Oakland, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: With Love and Squalor: 14 Writers Respond to the Work of J.D. Salinger (Paperback)

How I wish this book had been around for the many years I taught "Catcher in the Rye" and "Franny & Zooey" to my high school students. I read half of "Love and Squalor" on my feet at a bookstore; I couldn't stop reading long enough to buy it until the place was closing -- 14 gifted writers responding to their experiences with not only "Catcher" but the whole scanty Salinger cannon. How I wish there had been 28! The writings range from the good to the extraordinary -- I particularly loved Charles D'Ambrosio's beautiful piece about suicide and "crappy, broken-down families" (and can that phrase please replace "dysfunctional"?), John McNally's insightful observations on the fabulous minor characters in "Catcher" and Karen E. Bender's lovely literary 'first kiss' with Holden. Best of all, the book has introduced me to these three wonderful writers, all of them new to me. After reading "Catcher" more than thirty times over the years, thank you all for making it new to me again.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impossible not to love it, May 20, 2003

By 

João Pitella Junior (Brasília Brazil) - See all my reviews

This review is from: With Love and Squalor: 14 Writers Respond to the Work of J.D. Salinger (Paperback)

This is one of the best books I've read about a writer. Each of the 14 articles gives us a different point of view on old J.D., and all of them come up with great insights.

My favorite is "Salinger and Sobs", written by Charles D'Ambrosio (we're sure going to hear this name a lot). This article is very sensitive and really touching. I think the guy understood Salinger - and Holden Caulfield - very deeply.

"The Salinger Weather", by Thomas Beller, is also fascinating. Take a look at this quote: "... there is the fear I have that if you're a Salinger fan, if you are living in the Salinger Weather, you can never have a relationship with another person. I mean a developed, adult, love-type relationship." He hit the mark! And that makes us think a lot.

Well, I had a lot of fun with "Good-bye, Holden Caulfield. I Mean It. Go! Go!", by Walter Kirn.

When it comes to the "with squalor" part of the book, Emma Forrest's piece is very charming. She says that Salinger quit publishing because he sort of knew he could not be one of the greatest world's writers, because he knew he was not so good as people would expect after "Catcher". That sounded like a challenge. And it is a shame that J.D. didn't take it on.

Anyway, if you're a Salinger freak, or if you just like a great reading, this book is indispensable.