Book Review: RAISE HIGH THE ROOFBEAM, CARPENTERS and SEYMOUR: AN INTRODUCTION, by J.D. Salinger

More than any other author, Salinger can make me feel seconds from crying, for either hilarity or sorrow.

I do not know how he does this.

I think it has mostly to do with his sets of siblings, his large families (the Glass family, the Caulfields), his struggles between siblings to understand each other or let each other go, and the fact that, always, at least one of the siblings is Tragically Absent. If this is the case, then probably I'll have to concede that not every one will "get" Salinger--readers raised as only children, or without the tricky netting of sibling rivalry and support (or they at least won't "get" him quite like I do)--but I do hope very much that I am wrong, and that Salinger's appeal is not quite that limited. This is merely what I love Salinger for--the siblings, and the fantastic writing.

RAISE HIGH THE ROOFBEAM & SO ON is the very last Salinger book, the one that I'd been hoarding, hoping against hope (and the laws of the universe) that reading this one wouldn't leave me utterly without an unread Salinger novel, but now...Alas. There are no more. I'll be stuck with rereading, it seems.

RAISE HIGH is also the last, and most conclusive, book dealing with the Glass family, whose members appear in Franny & Zooey, RAISE HIGH, and at least two of Salinger's Nine Stories. Also, RAISE HIGH (joy of joys!) approaches, at last, that most elusive Glass, Seymour.

This is a good order in which to read Salinger's books (three of them, I might interject here, are not novels but collections of either two or nine short stories): The Catcher in the Rye first, then Franny & Zooey, followed by Nine Stories and, lastly, RAISE HIGH THE ROOFBEAM, CARPENTERS, ETC. I offer you an order which allows the great overarching Glass family story to unfold.

I will not go into it much more, I think, so as not to rob first-time readers of certain surprises which can easily be blown in a summary. For example: who is narrating. And: what he has to say. I mention only that it is a delight to be offered an unpretentious bouquet of early-blooming parentheses: (((()))). For me, as a reader, that is truly a first.

(Oh, yeah, and God bless the Internet, but there's a site with tons of unpublished Salinger stories: it's not over! Hallelujah!)

RATING: 5

Book Review: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, by J.D. Salinger

I first read this book for a class ("Young Adult Literature" at WWU), and I'm not sure that's such a great way to go about Salinger. I mean, some books you can analyze right down to a pile of dust, and I don't think CATCHER is one of them. At any rate, I read the book in class a few years ago, and when a friend brought it up a few months back, I realized I'd forgotten pretty much everything about it except "...this kid named, Holden, right? Who says 'goddam' all the time?", so I figured I ought to embark upon that particular journey again. And so I did. And wow. I love J.D. Salinger.

What I realized, reading CATCHER the second time, is that this is the kind of book you must read at least twice--no doubt, CATCHER has now entered the rotation of Books I Reread Every Few Years--because in the first reading, you only get the gist of the story. You know not to expect a whole lot of plot (not much happens, okay? Now you know), you get all the way to the end and learn a few things about this Holden Caulfield kid, and then, when you go back to read CATCHER the second time, you can't help seeing Holden in a completely different light.

My second time through CATCHER, I realized that it was one of the saddest books I'd ever read--not Steel Magnolias sad or anything, but sad right down to my bones. I wanted to hug Holden and make things better somehow, because he's such a loveable kid, even though he's a little punk sometimes.

I don't want you thinking CATCHER is depressing, though, because it isn't. It's also laugh-out-loud funny, because Holden is just a riot--there's a lot in what he actually says, sure, but there's tons more in what he doesn't say. He's easily one of my favorite characters of all time. In fact, he might be the best ever. The scene where Holden dances with his kid sister Phoebe is wonderful--anybody with siblings should read this book.

Rereading CATCHER then sent me on this Salinger binge, which is a sad endeavor because Salinger only wrote four books (they're all skinny books, too, and only two of them are novels)--so I implore you to read Franny & Zooey, as well as Nine Stories. I'm sure Raise the Roofbeam High Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction is good too, but I wouldn't know: I've been putting off reading that one so that I can keep thinking that there's something by Salinger that I haven't read...

RATING: 5