Customer Reviews

If You Really Want to Hear About It: Writers on J.D. Salinger and His Work

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Although there have been at least two other books offering selected articles on Salinger's work, this is the most comprehensive, wide-ranging and up-to-date by far. Editor Crawford casts a wide net, including critical analyses, memoirs, book reviews, interviews, and other material related to the author both as a writer and as a person. Even the internet was investigated, and it is good to see a long excerpt (updated) from Sarah Morrill's unique web site. The book covers the period from the early 1950s to the early 2000s. All Salinger fans must own this.

This is a charming and amazingly well done book. A must read for both hardcore Salinger fans and anyone who ever had their life transformed after reading Catcher in the Rye in 8th grade. If you've ever been curious about the famously reclusive man behind some of your favorite stories, this book offers the most entertaining insights out there as far as I can tell. Great, great stuff. Not phony at all.

I can't say I'm a big JD Salinger fan - I always thought THE CATCHER IN THE RYE was a great, even must-read book, but only before the age of 17, after which it loses it's power to inspire and even entertain, and that the Glass stories were just a bit too pretentious. But I must admit after reading this anthology of essays, reviews, and personal memoirs (usually recounting attempts at meeting the hermit-like Salinger in person) I care even less for the writing and almost nothing for the man. The harshest critics here - Jonathan Yardley, Mary McCarthy, Louis Menand - seem to be right on target: it's just possible that the author who made his chief characters rail so much against "phoniness" might be the biggest phony of all. Salinger comes across as a possibly sexually perverted, definitely dictatorial, self-centered monster who is apparently lost in a make-believe world of 1940s movies and a daily writing regimen that might be producing numerous literary works for future generations of readers to ponder - or might be producing nothing at all. Alex Beam makes a good case that even Salinger's reclusion and maniacal desire to protect his privacy might be all a ploy to make sure he's never forgotten: when he's out of the news for a while he suddenly resurfaces, usually with outrage that once again his privacy has been violated. Beam calls him a "master showman, a genius spin doctor, a public relations wizard." Two people who knew him well - his daughter Margaret Salinger and his lover for a year Joyce Maynard - write about the man in totally unflattering terms. There are 29 selections included in this anthology and they span the gamut from fanatical worshipping to clear-headed debunking. My major complaint is with the extraordinary number of typos in the text: it's embarrassing and gives the whole book a feeling of being a throw-off not to be taken seriously. Other than that, it's a pretty interesting compilation.

While browsing in the literary criticism section of a local Borders bookstore about two years ago, I noticed this book with its "Catcher"-red cover, and having had an interest in Salinger since I read his war stories several years ago, I thought it might be worth reading. It was -- but it also turned out to be little more than an updated version of Grunwald's 1962 SALINGER: A CRITICAL and PERSONAL PORTRAIT, a collection of essays devoted to the life and works of JD Salinger. Indeed, Crawford's collection contains some of the same essays that are found in Grunwald's, such as Mary McCarthy's "JD Salinger's Closed Circuit"; but it also contains some interesting additions: Michiko Kakutani's "From Salinger, a New Dash of Mystery"; Alex Beam's "JD Salinger, Failed Recluse"; and Joanna Smith Rakoff's "My Salinger Year."

McCarthy's essay addresses the narcissistic quality of Salinger's Glass fiction, arguing that the Glass kids are all reflections of Salinger. I think her argument is compelling; as you read the Glass stories and compare their characters' concerns and crises to what is known about Salinger (his desire for privacy; his opinions of intellectual pursuits; his ambivalence toward fame and fortune; his devotion to the Buddhist tenet of eradicating Ego: all of which can be found in the biographies about him), you get the very strong impression that his Glass fiction is a mirror that reflects his own personal concerns and crises. The article by Kakutani is a review she wrote in 1997 in light of the rumored publication in book form of "Hapworth 16, 1924," Salinger's last published work of fiction that appeared in The New Yorker in 1965. Her review reads like an epitaph; and shortly after it was published in The New York Times, the rumored plans for "Hapworth" dissolved (Her recent review, "Of Teen Angst and Alienation" -- written a few days after Salinger's death -- seems more sympathetic). Beam's short essay focuses on one of the more curious and paradoxical aspects of the "Salinger Myth": for a guy who was adamant about staying out of the public eye, Salinger made a lot of noise, and got a lot of attention, reminding everybody that he wanted to be left alone. Rakoff's essay, which recounts her experiences as a "defender of the faith" at Ober, Salinger's publishing agent, is a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of Salinger's renowned privacy. Very recently, a shorter version of this essay, "My Adventures Answering JD Salinger's Mail," appeared on the Internet, and includes some amusing observations about how everybody seems to fall all over themselves whenever Salinger's name is mentioned.

IF YOU REALLY WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT contains "old school" analysis and "new school" reflections about Salinger and his fiction, and is worth perusing. It makes a nice companion-piece to SALINGER: A CRITICAL AND PERSONAL PORTRAIT. The two books together could serve as bookends for your Salinger collection.

As a fan of Salinger, I wondered if this would be awesome or just disappoint. And I have to say it's such a great sampling of writers and insights, I couldn't put it down.

I guess I really wanted to hear about it, because I ordered this book on top of the ones by Margaret Salinger and Joyce Maynard. Very interesting to re-read the reviews that appeared when the stories were published.

I think that Salinger brought this on himself by the vacuum he created by ceasing to publish in 1965. And I have some admiration for those who ventured to go to Cornish NH to try to remove his armor, or at least his helmet, to quote from one of his own stories.

I wouldn't attempt it myself; I was reminded of a couple of classmates from the University of Chicago who drove down to Oxford, Miss., and located William Faulkner's house. They were prowling around outside when the author came out onto the porch and pointed out that they were on private property. I suppose they thought he would say, "How would you boys like to come in and have a cup of coffee, and I'll tell you all about my new novel."

If we can't read Salinger, we can read about him. Worth the time, in my opinion.

Die-hard Salinger fans would pick this book up. I, regrettably, find the book exceedingly repetitive. The scant facts and hear-says about The Man are so re-used and re-cycled in article after article in this book. Save for the excerpts from Joyce Maynard's and Peggy Salinger's memoirs--which I am now interested to read, especially Maynard's--this book is a heap of junk.

By not wishing to be bothered by the public, by becoming a recluse Salinger achieved the exact opposite of what he had hoped to. Instead of being more left alone he was more inquired about. The curiosity about his life at times seemed to exceed the curiosity about his work. This is a subject he has much to say about when his alter- ego Buddy Glass talks about his own teaching of Literature, and what for him is the distressing fact that his students seem to care a lot more about the personal life of the writer than about what he has written.
It would be unfair to characterize this collection as such as it contains many fine and interesting reviews of the work. Still a considerable part is those kind of hunting out the writer essays which usually give us little more than we knew before.
The present work has interviews, reviews of his work, assessments of his literary place in the Tradition. Among the writers are Updike, Mary McCarthy, Eudora Welty, Ron Rosenbaum, Michiko Kakutani, and perhaps most importantly Salinger's daughter Margeret and his former girlfriend Joyce Maynard.
This work should be of great interest to real fans of Salinger even if it doesnot give complete analysis of the work.