Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Franny and Zooey JD Salinger


Title: Franny and Zooey
Author: JD Salinger
Yearly Count: 4
Rating: 4.5/5
Pages: 202

Challenges This book is in:
My Year of Reading Dangerously Challenge #1

Eponymous Challenge #1
Novella Challenge #1



I highly enjoyed this book, I enjoyed it so much that after reading it I did not have enough of Salinger so I went over to the public library and immediately borrowed Nine Stories and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour , also by JD Salinger!
These stories were initially published in the NY Times, separately. They both involve Franny, who is eccentric and somewhat overwhelmed...really even overwhelming! However she is a blast to read about and the transitions she goes through from when the book starts to when it ends makes it comepletely worth the emotional wreck that this family is.

It is almost like I got what I did despite the fact that the book talks about a group of wonderbread kids who have life so easy that they try and make it complicated. I realised that I did have a hard time tolerating their fainting spells, and when they insulted their mamma and called her fat and such. I began to see them as more spoiled and less actually practising what they knew.

It seems that Salinger could have chosen to use these wealthy, upper class, wonderbreads because of the impact it could have on the reader. It is easier to take something from a preacher who you can see does not have it all together either, you can relate to him...and maybe that is why the author chose to do it that way. Maybe he was mocking the whole idea, as in these are they only type of people who can afford to mope around and recite little prayers....who knows what he meant to do...I do know what I got from it though. But the way the book is written I think almost every reader would get something slightly different. If I were you I'd give this one a try, it is really good.

Also reviewed by:
pussreboots Franny and Zooey

5 comments:

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

Sweet--I'll have to check this out when I get home from work. You've totally made my day!

bethany (dreadlock girl) said...

awe...you are very nice. thanks for checking it out!

Bookfool said...

I've got a (tattered) copy of this, somewhere. Thanks for the review! I'll have to dig for it. :)

Amat Libris said...

Mental note to self: Must read J. D. Salinger! I've been wanting to for so long but have somehow never managed it.

Linky is working again, so you can post the complete list; and I'm being really relaxed about people's interpretaions of 'eponymous', so Portrait of a Lady will be fine.

Katherine said...

I read this a while back, but wasn't so keen on it. I don't know, but Salinger isn't really to my taste.