This month on the Reading group we’re going to look at JD Salinger, the man the New York Times called “the Garbo of letters”, a writer who withdrew so effectively from public life that he became almost as famous for the books he didn’t publish as those he did.
We’re looking at Salinger partly because, why not? He’s a tremendous writer, and with persistent rumours that more of his work may be be posthumously published, one who is going to be in the spotlight for years to come. It’s also a good time to look at him because Penguin Random House has unilaterally declared 16 July “Salinger Day” in honour of the 65th anniversary of The Catcher in the Rye. This is fairly arbitrary, I know. It’s probably even phony. But it’s fun. It’s also hard to think of anything that Holden Caulfield would like less. And for that reason alone I’m happy to endorse it.
The obvious book to look at would be The Catcher in the Rye and, as Robert McCrum put it in his rundown of the greatest novels of all time, “the unforgettably haunting voice of the adolescent at odds with a troubling world”.
It’s worth noting that this novel was published in 1951 and is set in 1949: a full four years before Elvis Presley walked into Sun Studio and lit the fuse for the late 20th century’s explosion of teenage rebellion. It’s a book that was as perspicacious as it is enduring. It gave voice to teenage angst in 1951, it continued to resonate at least until the 90s when I was reading it and – although (alas!) I can’t speak for today’s teenagers – it would be surprising if they weren’t getting a bang out of it for years to come.
In short, The Catcher in the Rye would be an excellent choice for the Reading group. That said, this could also be a good opportunity to look at some of Salinger’s lesser-known books. Holden Caulfield may have made Salinger’s name, but his long-term reputation also rests on the quality of books such as Franny and Zooey and Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction, not to mention his superb short stories (collected in Nine Stories from 1953, and the posthumous Three Early Stories).
Salinger may have said “there is a marvellous peace in not publishing”, but he also knew how to shake things up. Any one of those books would be more than worth reading. All we have to do is decide which one. And all that takes is for you to post a preference in the comments below. I’ll tally up the votes in a few days and then we can hit it.
As usual, all other thoughts, comments and suggestions for further reading are also more than welcome.
