Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader
Facebook Twitter Pinterest <Embed>
  • List Price: $20.00
  • Save: $5.68 (28%)
FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books.
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
J.D. Salinger: The Escape... has been added to your Cart
Want it Thursday, Aug. 18? Order within and choose this date at checkout.
Ship to:
Select a shipping address:
To see addresses, please
or
Please enter a valid US zip code.
or
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.
Used: Like New | Details
Sold by powells_chicago
Fulfilled by Amazon
Condition: Used: Like New
Comment: 2014. Hardcover. Fine.

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and .

If you're a seller, Fulfillment by Amazon can help you increase your sales. We invite you to learn more about Fulfillment by Amazon .

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See all 2 images

J.D. Salinger: The Escape Artist (Icons) Hardcover – June 3, 2014

by
Thomas Beller (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Thomas Beller Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
Thomas Beller (Author)
3.5 out of 5 stars 68 customer reviews
Book 4 of 11 in the Icons Series
See all 7 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Price
New from Used from
Kindle
"Please retry"
$6.34
— —
Hardcover
"Please retry"
$14.32
$2.65 $0.01
Audible, Unabridged
"Please retry"
$0.00
Free with your Audible trial
MP3 CD, Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged
"Please retry"
$14.99
$7.21 $7.52
Scream: A Memoir of Glamour and Dysfunction by Tama Janowitz
Scream
A Memoir of Glamour and Dysfunction by Tama Janowitz | Learn more | See related books
$14.32 FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books. In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
click to open popover

Frequently Bought Together

  • J.D. Salinger: The Escape Artist (Icons)
  • +
  • Three Early Stories (Illustrated)
  • +
  • Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction
Total price: $32.31
Buy the selected items together

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.
Back
  1. Three Early Stories (Illustrated)
    J. D. Salinger
    3.7 out of 5 stars 35
    Paperback
    $9.99 Prime
  2. J. D. Salinger: A Life
    Kenneth Slawenski
    3.8 out of 5 stars 101
    Hardcover
  3. Witness to the Revolution: Radicals, Resisters, Vets, Hippies, and the Year America Lost Its Mind and Found Its Soul
    Clara Bingham
    4.2 out of 5 stars 41
    Hardcover
    $18.20 Prime
  4. My Salinger Year
    Joanna Rakoff
    4.1 out of 5 stars 196
    Paperback
    $12.48 Prime
  5. Salinger: The Classic Critical and Personal Portrait
    Henry Anatole Grunwald
    5.0 out of 5 stars 1
    Paperback
    $13.68 Prime
  6. With Love and Squalor: 13 Writers Respond to the Work of J.D. Salinger
    Kip Kotzen
    4.0 out of 5 stars 7
    Paperback
    $13.99 Prime
Next

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

  (What's this?)
If you buy a new print edition of this book (or purchased one in the past), you can buy the Kindle edition for only $0.99 (Save 82%). Print edition purchase must be sold by Amazon. Learn more.
For thousands of qualifying books, your past, present, and future print-edition purchases now lets you buy the Kindle edition for $2.99 or less. (Textbooks available for $9.99 or less.)
  • Thousands of books are eligible, including current and former best sellers.
  • Look for the Kindle MatchBook icon on print and Kindle book detail pages of qualifying books. You can also see more Kindle MatchBook titles here or look up all of your Kindle MatchBook titles here.
  • Read the Kindle edition on any Kindle device or with a free Kindle Reading App.
  • Print edition must be purchased new and sold by Amazon.com.
  • Gifting of the Kindle edition at the Kindle MatchBook price is not available.
Learn more about Kindle MatchBook.
The latest book club pick from Oprah
"The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead is a magnificent novel chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. See more

Product Details

  • Series: Icons
  • Hardcover: 192 pages
  • Publisher: New Harvest; 1St Edition edition (June 3, 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0544261992
  • ISBN-13: 978-0544261990
  • Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 5.8 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #636,465 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

  (What's this?)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsInteresting work and highly recommended for any American literature enthusiast
By R. Hardway on June 27, 2015
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Fascinating long essay on Salinger and the peculiar effect he has had on people's lives, despite being a very minor novelist and short story writer. Beller's reaction to Salinger is not unusual and he writes about his obsession very well. He has uncovered a few previously unmentioned tidbits of Salinger's bizarre life. A few critics I know have complained that "The Escape Artist," is about Beller, not Salinger. It is about Beller/Salinger and how the two have merged into a single personality, even though little is known about Salinger's personality. Interesting work and highly recommended for any American literature enthusiast, whether or not one is a Salinger fan.
Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsWho Dini?
By C. CRADDOCK VINE VOICE on May 8, 2014
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
The Escape Artist is about J.D. Salinger but it is also about the author himself, his experiences while doing research, the fate of other Salinger biographers, and finally, in some of the books most moving passages, what Salinger's writing meant to him personally. He also weighs in on how ultimately Salinger's Fortress of Solitude failed to protect him from the kryptonite of crazies waving his book around after committing murders, and the crazy rumors that flourished in the vacuum about him when those who knew him refused to say anything whatsoever about Clark Kent due to his zeal for absolute privacy.

There is a passage in The Catcher in the Rye where Holden Caulfield states that he likes to read books that, after you read them, you feel like you know the author well and want to call him up and chat. He has just read Out of Africa and would like to call Isak Dinesen up. He also wishes he could pal around with Ring Lardner. He doesn't feel that way about Somerset Maugham after reading Of Human Bondage, however. It turns out that tons of people feel that way after reading his books, and after trying to answer his fan mail personally it is just too much for him and he becomes a hermit. I remember reading a magazine article that was essentially the saga of a fan who felt such an overwhelming compulsion to meet him that he went searching for him, and when he finally did speak to him, the reclusive author didn't have much to say and was perplexed and bewildered about just exactly what these people expected of him. What did they want? Even though this story was nothing if not anti-climactic, I and no doubt many others read it with interest, curious to know what was going on with him. Was he still writing, and if so, why wasn't he publishing anything?Read more ›
Comment 16 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
2.0 out of 5 starsAs much about Beller as Salinger
By Marc Lackritz on January 24, 2015
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Should probably be titled "Desperately Seeking Beller"! A series of almost randomly connected New Yorker length essays about Salinger and Beller, or Beller and Salinger, it reads like a very well written ADD trip with the two authors, alone in a car for 2 or 3 days. By the end, you learn a lot of things, some about Salinger & his family, some about the eternal search for Salinger, some about the worlds of New York City and the time of post-Depression/World War II America, some about the New Yorker, and much about Beller. But, like the hors d'ouevres before a fine meal, the book leaves you still hungry, not full. It's well-written, in that classically New Yorker kind of way, but seems more about the writing than the subject.
Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
3.0 out of 5 starsGuardedly three stars
By Amazon Customer on July 9, 2015
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
It's hard to rate this book. At times I had to switch mentally to realize parts that were the author's voice and parts that were actually about Salinger. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention. I kept re-reading passages which I normally don't have to do in a book. It was just confusing at times.
Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
3.0 out of 5 starsNot a huge impact
By KSreader on June 24, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
I didn't feel the author had much to add to what is already known about Salinger. While he did have access to an unpublished manuscript about Salinger and many of Salinger's letters, this book does not seem to provide any new insights about the man, though people who are Salinger scholars may not agree with me. The most valuable thing I gained from this book was being prodded to read Margaret Salinger's and Joyce Meyer's books, both of which I found fascinating. Realizing that Salinger did not think people needed to, or should, know anything about his personal life, the narratives from people who knew him., for me, does add to my appreciation of his work.
Beller seems most interested in showing how his background and experiences are similar to Salinger's - not that interesting to the reader, though.
Comment 5 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
3.0 out of 5 starsGood primer about Salinger
By Amazon Customer on June 19, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Not a bad brief book about Salinger, especially if you don't know much about this reclusive author. I was hoping to read more about Salinger's life in seclusion, but there wasn't much here. The book focuses much more on what has been known about Salinger's writing life than any of the new letters or source material that may have been released since Salinger's death in 2010.
Comment 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
3.0 out of 5 starsAt first good, but then disappointing.
By kb from la on August 6, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
This short book starts off with an intriguing premise. Soon after becoming a celebrated author, JD Salinger moved to an isolated town in New Hampshire and attempted to create a wall of secrecy around himself. In turn, his withdrawal sparked a cottage industry of snoopy journalism and intrusive critical theorizing. Beller wants to do something different--to walk in Salinger's footsteps as an act of both self-revelation and appreciation. At first he succeeds, detailing his attempts to visit sites like the Salinger family apartment and a camp where Salinger spent a summer. All this seems to proceed from a deep admiration for the author and a sense that he (Beller) has much in common with Salinger.

But about half way thru the book, Beller starts going off on tangents, particularly about the women in Salinger's life including daughter Margaret Salinger and Joyce Maynard who at age 19 moved in with the 53 year old author. Although seeming sympathetic with the plight of women who come into the orbit of a famous man, he makes a lot of mean-spirited cracks about Maynard in particular. At this point Beller's intentions begin to get muddy and his identification with Salinger turns unpleasantly competitive. Is he resentful of the obsessive hold Salinger has on his own imagination?

There is interesting new information (for me) about Salinger here, and Beller teases out intriguing connections between the author's life and his art. But Beller's attempt at paralleling his own life experiences with Salinger's just does not work. I'm left with no interest in reading more of the author's writing.
Comment 4 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 starsFRAUD ALERT!!! I did NOT order this ...

FRAUD ALERT!!! I did NOT order this book!!! My account is "dead"!!

WHAT'S GOING ON???!!!!!
Angie

Published 1 month ago by angie
5.0 out of 5 starsNo wasted words or stuff

Truly a well written, concise job! No wasted words or stuff!

Cajuncharley

Published 1 month ago by Cajuncharley
2.0 out of 5 starsMostly about the author.

I frankly do not want to know that much about the author, I was more interested in learning about a character in the book named JD Salinger. Read more

Published 11 months ago by lawrence R hamilton
1.0 out of 5 starsOne Star

It came in a broken status

Published 13 months ago by farform
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

If you love Salinger, this one's worth it.

Published 13 months ago by kathleen meier
1.0 out of 5 starsLess than I wanted to hear about Salinger, more ...

Less than I wanted to hear about Salinger, more than I needed to hear abut Beller. Are we sure he found the suppressed MS he says he lost?

Published 14 months ago by George R. Yanok
5.0 out of 5 starsThe best book I have read this year

The best book I have read this year. Much more than a biography, The Escape Artist is portrait of what it means to be an artist.

Published 16 months ago by Jason Brown
4.0 out of 5 starsI see common ground in many of my favorite authors.

Becoming my own Writer, after a lifetime of experience, I am interested in other writers life experiences to inspire me. I see common ground in many of my favorite authors.

Published 17 months ago by Gerald Donoghue
5.0 out of 5 starstotal enlightening

This book fills in much biographical goodies about this brilliant, enigmatic writer. It adds another piece to the puzzle of J.D. Salinger. A most worthwhile read.

Published 17 months ago by Lois C. Ernst
3.0 out of 5 starsThree Stars

Very informative read.

Published 18 months ago by Steven Romich

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

J.D. Salinger: The Escape Artist (Icons)
Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway
This item: J.D. Salinger: The Escape Artist (Icons)
Set up a giveaway

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.