Dream Catcher: A Memoir (Hardcover)

~ Margaret A. Salinger (Author) "MAMA SAID THAT WHEN SHE WAS A LITTLE GIRL, before her house in London was bombed, she would often creep out of her bed at..." (more)
Key Phrases: inverted forest, crazy cliff, swell girl, New York, Cross Mountain, Twelfth Infantry (more...)

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
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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: 9.4 x 6.6 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #886,204 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 39 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.

19 of 19 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)

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.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars It's Only a Memoir, February 26, 2005

By	Snowball Lake (Virginia) - See all my reviews

Where's the editing in this book? While a memoir, by definition, presents facts (or not!) filtered through the author's memory, bias and interpretation, an editor or reviewer should still reflect upon the writing skills and organization offered to the reader. Unfortunately, Ms. Salinger offered the minutiae of her personal and family history in a way that was to the point in describing her tortured childhood, but often tediously anecdotal, and quite often ambiguous (did her mother beat her or was Peggy's memory lapse just that? Was Peggy clairvoyant? Was she her brother's protector or did she hate him initially as suggested by her father's comment?). Overall, the book suffers from a lack of structure and too many writing approaches - sometimes comic slang, sometimes well-written philosophical interpretation. It would be difficult to sum up Ms. Salinger's overall personal writing style. She almost sadly seems to attempt to copy her father's style at times. Her best approach, to me, is in the final section where she seems to combine both directness with deep, creative insight into her past and the characters inhabiting it.
Those looking for details of J. D.'s life and motivation should not expect to rely upon this memoir for facts. Either this accounting by Ms. Salinger was mis-advertised as such or, in my opinion, missed it's mark. The book is about Margaret Salinger, not J.D., and, as such, presents her journey from a perceived troubled childhood, through the not-so-unique emotional upheaval of adolescence - popularity, note-passing, boyfriends, some miserable teachers and loneliness (a la Holden Caulfield?), serious emotional and physical disabilities, to a final level of personal peace and acceptance of the fact that she apparently had miserable parents.
References to J.D. Salinger's writing were most often inserted into multitudes of footnotes, interrupting what written flow there was, but were haphazardly left in the text in other instances for no distinguishable reason. An ambitious initial and insightful attempt to relate Mr. Salinger's life's events to his motivation seemed to dwindle away as the memoir continued. Disappointment over this tactic arises not so much from the loss of interpretation but to the overall lack of focus and structure.