Well, that's two in a row the underwhelmed me. Unlike One Hundred Years of Solitude, however, I went into J.D. Salinger's Nine Stories collection with low expectations after the painstaking read that was Seymour- An Introduction, but luckily Nine Stories had more hits than misses. Unfortunately not many of the short stories were particularly interesting to blog about. Salinger enjoys writing argumentative dialog between two characters, and that trope appears in the nine short stories fairly often. But while some of these interactions provided interesting characterization (A Perfect Day for Bananafish) or philosophical debate (Teddy), some just went nowhere at all (Down at the Dinghy) or were just mindless prattling between unlikable characters (Just Before the War with the Eskimos). The lows aren't too low, but the highs aren't all that high either. No wonder Salinger's really only known for The Catcher in the Rye.
Indeed. As long as you've come this far though you might as well try out "Franny and Zooey," which was the best of the three short story/novella compilations he put out there. Franny feels like the first few chapters of Catcher told from a female's perspective and Zooey is its direct sequel, which is slower but has a decent enough ending. Your call.
ReplyDeleteI read the first couple of short stories in this book and gave up. The first one was good and then I stalled hard on the second one.
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