Franny And Zooey By J. D. Salinger

I know some of you are thinking of that handsome young Doctor in Scrubs (and I do love him too if you must know, I've got a lot of love to go around), but in this instance I'm referring to the remarkable JD Salinger and his book "Franny and Zooey"The book is two short stories sewn together, one called Franny, and the other (rather predictably) titled Zooey (ok it's only predictable when you know the full title I suppose, but you know what I mean).... (especially when he bursts into song - that's when he's at his cutest I find).. and anyway - this book was picked for my local book club, and I got my second hand copy from the nice Amazonians, (they've some amount of cheap books in Brazil, must be all the rainforests) and so my copy had been intriguingly gifted to someone from their parents for their 22nd Birthday - imagine that?! A skinny book, for a 22nd birthday present, maybe they pushed the boat out for his 21st... There was nothing written on the back, so, with no hint apart from a dedication stating that it was being offered with the enthusiasm of a one year old offering a cold lima bean - (and when he plays those hilarious tricks with the dead dog), I dived in.In summary, in 178 or so pages - the main character Franny stares twice (maybe even more often, but definitely at least twice) at the ceiling (and then there's those times he has that sweet little sing song voice where he talks about the lessons learned during the day aka the half hour that the show has lasted). She has a fight with her boyfriend - who's a bit of a drip, then goes home all mopey, not over the boyfriend, more because she wants to find some kind of inner peace, so she's home all mopey and her mother and brother try to cheer her up and then she falls asleep in the end. (or when he thinks out loud in the middle of the corridor)So in summary, not much happens, the action covers about 3 hours in total, and yet it is COM PLETE LY transfixing. He's a genius of a writer, that's all there is to it. Shows you the minute telltale signifiers of a person's mood, effortlessly brings you into the hot, smoke filled, world of the characters and doesn't let you out. So, yeah, I love him. There were bits that I didn't love too, but sure no one's perfect, (except JD from scrubs maybe)... And it is the ONLY book I've managed to finish this year so far... apart from "La Gatita", "Colours for Babies", "Shapes for Babies", "Words for Babies" and "Jenni, an Chearc Beag Donn" (Jenny the little brown hen). I'm still struggling through "Teddy is Polite" it's a hard hitting drama about a Teddy forced to recognise the consequences of his actions - I'm fairly sure it's not by a JD of any kind.The book list is gonna be short this year.

This book consists of two interrelated stories about members of the Glass family. These kids (seven of them if I remember well) are the children of a showbusiness family from New York and they used to be genius-kids who appeared on a radio show answering quizzes and philosophizing. Apparently the Glass kids had a special education in an ecumenical religiosity and philosophy, and their situation as whiz kids has led to emotional distress, much a-la Holden Caulfield but more illustrated. By the way, in terms of its central themes, this book could be said to be the closing of the full circle of Caulfield's story. The Glasses, just like Caulfield, are intelligent people, very frustrated with the inadequacies of life in general and the people who surround them. They are very neurotic in a New York way. They are angry because people aren't as intelligent as they should be, and because the ways of the world are not what reason and humanism tell us they should be. How to cope with it?In the first story, Franny, a young college girl, arrives in New Haven (Yale) to be with her preppy and also intellectualizing boyfriend for a football weekend. They go to a cafe to have some food (and drinks and cigarettes). The story is simply the account of their talk. Salinger is one of the greatest masters of frenzied and fast dialogue, and it shows here. Franny is telling his boyfriend about all the phoniness of campus life, about the lunacy and presumptuosness of teachers and classmates. She tells him how she has read a book about a Russian monk who discovers a special Jesus prayer. If you repeat this prayer incessantly, it will become a part of you and repeat itself automatically, bringing you closer to grace and peace. The conversation starts getting out of hand as Franny gets carried away and as the boyfriend becomes rather estranged, until Franny collapses on her way to the restroom. When she wakes up, she is constantly whispering the Jesus prayer.In the second story, Franny is at her parents' home in NY, recovering from her nervous breakdown. In a long talk with her brother Zooey (both of them being the youngest Glass children), they confront each other's traumas, weaknesses, genius and problems with the world. Zooey is also extremely talented and aware of the inadequacies of the world, but he seems to be in a (slightly) better emotional phase than Franny. The dialogue is moving, neurotic and masterful. After they argue rather violently, Zooey goes to another room and calls Franny pretending to be an older brother living away. In a further conversation Zooey forces Franny to understand that following a simple but futile recipe will not do the trick. The Jesus prayer is not enough: we have to accept the world as it is as well as the people around us. We can not be "catchers in the rhye". But we should live an ethical life, just because (which made me think of Kant's "categorical imperative"). As Seymour Glass, the eldest brother, once said to Zooey, sometimes you have to do things "for the Fat Lady", that is, just because it is the right thing to do, even if no one will notice."Frany and Zooey" is written in a lower key. It is unprententious, unlike its characters, but deep down it is about profound questions. How to cope with this mad world filled with people who are not bright nor good? Can you save the world? How to live? Yes, sometimes we have to do things we wouldn't like to do, but we have to do it, if only for the Fat Lady.

Like everyone else I read The Catcher in the Rye in that burst of teenage reading that starts with Catcher, proceeds through The Lord of the Flies onto Cannery Row/Tortilla Flat and culminates with On the Road. I enjoyed all of these books. I have not gone back to re-read any of them and, Steinbeck aside, nor have I read any other book by the authors concerned.Until now that is. As an occasional follower of the Guardian Reading Group, I recently read Franny and Zooey and, frankly, I wish I had not. It has thrown into doubt all my fond (now nearly 50 year old) memories of The Catcher in the Rye and, by implication, the other books in the list above.Franny and Zooey is a strange Frankenstein monster of a book. It comprises a good short story (Franny) with an extended 120 page dialogue piece tacked on (Zooey). I call Zooey a dialogue piece, because I do not know what else to call it. I hesitate to call it a novella, although it is of approximately the right length.Franny was written some time before Zooey and, if it had been left as a stand-alone short story, it would have been a modest, but nonetheless worthy addition to the oeuvre of the author of The Catcher in the Rye. It is with Zooey that the problem lies.Frances “Franny” Glass is the kid-sister in a family with seven children. Zachary “Zooey” Glass is about 5 years older and is the next youngest. She is at college and he is a successful professional actor. Like their siblings Franny and Zooey are preternaturally intelligent; it appears also that they are the ones blessed with good looks, Zooey especially. As the surname implies, the family weakness is emotional fragility. The oldest sibling committed suicide as an adult. The next oldest withdrew into academic bachelorhood. Throughout both Franny and Zooey, Franny is having an emotional breakdown. It is revealed that Zooey has had his own personal crises, but these are now in the past and he manages the situation by showing a carapace of cynicism and flippancy to the outside world. Exactly how he is inside is not made explicit.Whether or not you enjoy the Zooey section depends on how sympathetic you are prepared to be with a flip, over-intelligent, chain-smoking, handsome frat boy with a superiority complex. It also depends on whether you are prepared to follow the homilies drawn from a strange amalgam of Eastern mysticism and Christian religion. During most of the dialogue (and the book is really all dialogue), I felt that Salinger had chosen Zooey as his own personal interlocutor on matters spiritual and we, the readers, were no more than privileged eavesdroppers.I am afraid I was unable to bring myself to warm to Zooey and I found Zooey’s solution to Franny’s problems a touch facile. If Franny buys that, it is as if the Glass family’s vaunted intelligence turns out to be all surface glitter without any depth.

The product itself is fabulous. The delivery process was difficult.

First a brief comment on the centenary hardback edition. It looks good (well at least better than the paperback) but to be honest nothing special. Considering they made a big deal out of a centenary edition, the paper used is poor quality (the brown/yellow type) and it is cheaply made and bound. Having said that it will probably stand up better than the paperback simply due to the hardback spine so if you plan to keep forever it may be worth it.Onto the stories themselves. To be honest, probably only for hardcore Salinger fans. Nine Stories (or From Esme with Love and Squalor in the UK) is much better - for starters, there are more stories (nine!) compared to two here which means many more themes explored and short interesting pieces. Plus there's more of a chance if you dislike one or two it doesn't matter. Here there is Franny, a shorter story, and Zooey, much longer at 100 odd pages. Franny is in line with the Nine Stories type of story. Zooey is a bit more discursive, it is too long to be a short story but the plot itself doesn't really justify a longer length (for me). Zooey is also a sequel to Franny and seems to be mainly to give more detail about the Glass family rather than a standalone interesting piece.To conclude, Franny is a good read. Zooey I'm not sure if I would read again and so I am unsure whether to keep the book. If you're starting out with Salinger's short stories I would go for Nine Stories.