Remembering J.D. Salinger’s Nine Stories
A few days after my friend Amanda and I introduced J.D. Salinger’s Nine Stories
Very slowly, we told him to, “Put the book doooown and come over to our place. Now.”
It’s one of those books that really should come with a warning label.
Most people remember Salinger as the author of The Catcher in the Rye, but I was much more moved by his short stories. I find myself going back to Nine Stories, rereading certain stories whenever I need a reminder of what I should be searching for in the slush pile or a lesson on how to craft dialogue. It serves as my touchstone for great fiction. His stories are genuine and true and deceptively simple.
I first heard the news of his death on the 5:00 pm news, which just happened to be on while I was sitting in the living room. Sade Baderinwa announced it as the fifth or sixth story of the day and it was simply “J.D. Salinger died today at the age of 91.” There was no register of any deeper thought in her eyes and no solemnity in her voice–it was just another news item to slog through.
My husband and I looked at each other, totally stunned that it wasn’t the opening news story that night. But after the initial surprise, I suppose that Salinger would have preferred it that way.
The New Yorker published some remembrances, I especially liked the one Lillian Ross wrote. But the best tribute was “Bunch of Phonies Mourn J.D. Salinger” on The Onion website.
Popularity: 61% [?]
I’m almost 33, have a B.A. in English, but have never read Salinger. I’ve read a lot of stuff spanning from the Greek tragedies to the 20th century classics (i.e. Hemingway, Bukowski, John Fante, Céline, Henry Miller, Lawrence, McCullers, Camus, Waugh, etc.), but I never got to Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, nor any other works by him. I once picked it up, read the first five pages or so, but had to put it down to concentrate on my college studies even though I was really impressed with the raw quality of his prose.
I guess what I’m saying is this: thanks for the recommendation. It never occurred to me to check out his short stories, and I’ll be checking out Nine Stories in the near future.
Comment by Joe Cloyd — February 7, 2010 @ 11:50 am
Thanks Joe. Here’s a link to some of his New Yorker archives: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2010/01/salinger-in-our-archives.html
Comment by Pei-Ling — February 7, 2010 @ 10:26 pm