JD Salinger-Rated!

I have recently finished three of JD Salinger's books, and here they are with their ratings:
*Nine Stories 3.5/5
*Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters 4.5/5
*Franny and Zooey 5/5

I really enjoyed all three, but I think I overdid it on Salinger stuff in a row.

I recommend them all, some folk seem to not like that style of writing though...it is pretty precocious, just like his characters. It drew me in though, I didn't even have to work at it...it just happened.

Here is what I have to say about Franny and Zooey which is my favourite of the three books:

I enjoyed the book and the characters and all, but that was completely secondary to what I got out of the book. 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. So, like I said it is almost as if the donkey was speaking for me...like God used Zooey despite who he was, not because of who he was. I would argue that God does that with us all to a certain extent.

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. No matter what he meant, God spoke to me, even if it was through a talking donkey.

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