#718 in our old book database. Not rated.

Ӕ

Salinger's writing style really just scratches a certain itch in my brain. This was fantastic. ( )

this book produced such a different reaction from the first time I read it, 50-60 years ago. Not only did I not like it, I was offended by much of it. And itr also was so boring with so many tedious and also body-related details. Franny was also desperately in need of psychiatric help, but was frequently belittled for her thoughts and feelings. She no doubt was attempting to achieve perfection, as aare many. The life of the family in their very overcrowded apartment due to their hoarding was desperately in need of help, but that would have felt like to defeat to many of them. ( )

The facts at hand presumably speak for themselves, but a trifle more vulgarly, I suspect, than facts even usually do.

I expected to dislike this. "Franny," the short story that proceeds the novella "Zooey" mostly reinforced that expectation and made me think I would be in for a long, slogging reading for such a short book. But it turned out to be a pretty interesting and non-traditional story about a family, and needless to say, there is a lot of flair in Salinger's prose.

First off, Zooey is a guy. I went into the story thinking it would be about two female friends, two sisters, etc. But Franny and Zooey are actually brother and sister, the youngest of the Glass kids (a family Salinger apparently wrote about in some of his other works). They were all famous as kids for regularly appearing on a quiz show. They were basically over-educated to the exclusion of other things. The story in "Franny" is picked up by the "Zooey" part. While "Franny" provides important backstory, it's not until reading "Zooey" that you see it fitting into a wider story.

While this is one of the books this year that I think I'll be most glad I read, there are definitely a couple of points that give me pause:

1. There is so much mansplaining in this book. First Lane, then Buddy kinda, then Zooey. In fact, they even define the book's different parts.

2. A 25-year-old man talking down to his mother, calling her fatty, living in her house. Maybe it's time to get a damn job, huh, buddy?

3. A lot of ego for people who call the ego of others "lousy."

All in all though, I was pretty amused by this family and the consequences they are dealing with due to their quiz-show background. I would definitely seek out Salinger's other stories about them. ( )