And so, Gentle Readers, we bid farewell to J.D. Salinger
, the man who finally proved he would stop at absolutely nothing in his quest to escape his fans.Allegedly, he ate a rather strange diet and drank his own urine. He also died at home of natural causes, which can mean all sorts and varieties of deaths in my active imagination.
Jerry goes to kiss his considerably younger wife. "You ain't kissin' on me no more Pee Mouth," she hollers. And so it's only natural that she strangles him.
By the way,that was her nickname for him - Pee Mouth - affectionate at one time but not so much after the many years of frigid New Hampshire winters spent in hiding with the One and Only, the Great and Powerful.
The man who was said to be obsessed with a hatred of phoniness and desired getting at the absolute truth . . . hmmmm . . . he doesn't seem to have been so genuine and sincere. Jerome "Jerry" Salinger took a dump on a number of women during his life. If you must satisfy your curiosity about the man who created the Glass family, read Joyce Maynard's "At Home In The World
" and Margaret Salinger's "Dream Catcher
." I recommend the books. They are interesting and well written and probably more genuine than the man.It's been many years since I last read "The Catcher in the Rye
." My favorite younger man told me recently that he thinks it's his favorite book. I'll have to reread it and see what I think. Will the star dust have faded or will I still think it's good? I certainly never considered it my favorite, but it has legions of fans. It made the Top 100 list of greatest novels of the last century, coming in at #64, according to the males-only board of Modern Library.Salinger also supposedly wrote a number of novels, which he locked up in a safe at home, after he stopped writing for public consumption. If those novels are released, how can they ever live up to his rep?
So, Salinger, maybe you reveled in the attention you attracted by hiding in plain sight. Maybe your writing wasn't so hot anymore and you knew it and you kept your star shining by refusing to release your work. You let people speculate about you when you could have allowed your readers to get at the truth of you. You could have shed light on your writing and your process. You could have taught, but maybe you were so weird you were afraid nobody would have you. Or maybe you thought you were too good for the rest of the world. Easier to dazzle naive young women with your fame and with fake promises. Keep a woman at your beck and call. Engage a town in hiding you. Your own little world revolved around you.
The citizens of Cornish, N.H. admitted they got sick of all those people coming to town looking for Salinger so it was only natural that somebody finally came after him with a shot gun?
Love,
lalalalalalola
I'm not a Salinger fan. I didn't like the Catcher in the Rye at all. I know I speak blasphemy but the only thing that gave the book notoriety was the fact that every sentence practically had cursing. Not just a little Damn here and there but the F bomb constantly dropped. To me it had no meaning, no reason and I'm still baffled that it is so popular. Having said that everyone has different taste in literature. FYM has a right to like Salinger of course. How boring would life be if we were all alike in our taste and personalities.
ReplyDeleteHow interesting.... This guy never did a thing for me and I must admit that avid reader that I am, I never read his most famous work. Not growing up in the U.S., may have been one reason, but I have read most of the rest of famous American authors. And I didn't know about the pee, so that's not the reason.
ReplyDelete"The Catcher in the Rye" is one of my very favorite books :0)
ReplyDeleteI'd never read any of Catcher in the Rye until this past school year when my daughter asked me to read a few chapters out loud to her after her eyes were going bleary from too much reading. I stopped & laughed many times, though I think reading a whole book written in that punk's voice might've been too much for me.
ReplyDeletePublic attention would be a freaky thing to have to suddenly deal with, so I can feel for J.D., but you're absolutely right that the result was to draw more attention. Hmm, perhaps I'll check out that book by his daughter.
I'd never read Catcher until the fall of last year. While I enjoyed the book, there are many other works that I liked better.
ReplyDelete"Catcher in the Rye" is one book that I have never read, but always wanted to...I'll have to look it out.
ReplyDeleteUgh, drinking your own urine can't be too good for you as it is your body's waste, but all of these famous writers had their own little quirks!
Following you from Rita.
http://ladyofmuse.blogspot.com/
I read Catcher In the Rye when I was a teenager and all I remember is I wasn't impressed. It left so very little impression that I could never remember what it was about, to be honest. I just remembered it being foul, angst gibberish and have never cared to go back and re-read it all the decades since then. Never understood what the appeal was. But--different strokes for different folks, I guess. ;) Goodbye DJ. (I had thought he was already dead--LOL!)
ReplyDeleteHe's been dead for quite some time. I'm in summer reruns while I read some books I'm going to review.
DeleteI found I was really annoyed by Holden in Catcher in the Rye at first... but as the story goes on, you begin to view him differently. I feel like understanding his neurosis was PART of the plot. He's obnoxious, repetitive, and straight up bizarre, but it all stems from the absolute panic he feels in the wake of innocence lost.... Well, that's what I got anyway. Favorite Young Man forced me to read it about a year ago, and while it isn't my favorite, I can understand why it is his.
ReplyDeletePlus, he's always had a thing for those misogynist writers. Strikes me as odd, since he is the absolute opposite. You've got a good son there, dear.
Little Chick
We have a good little chick, baby doll.
DeleteI found I was really annoyed by Holden in Catcher in the Rye at first... but as the story goes on, you begin to view him differently. I feel like understanding his neurosis was PART of the plot. He's obnoxious, repetitive, and straight up bizarre, but it all stems from the absolute panic he feels in the wake of innocence lost.... Well, that's what I got anyway. Favorite Young Man forced me to read it about a year ago, and while it isn't my favorite, I can understand why it is his.
ReplyDeletePlus, he's always had a thing for those misogynist writers. Strikes me as odd, since he is the absolute opposite. You've got a good son there, dear.
Little Chick
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ReplyDelete