Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger

Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger

I've wanted to read this book for a while now, obviously Catcher in the Rye is a classic then a beautiful barista told me that her favorite short story was in her and then my favorite book store Longfellow Books had it used for $1.97! I loved the book, the style from Catcher is strongly there in all 9 stories and as you can see from the picture I had a great time reading part of the book on a shore path in Southern Maine.

The book starts out with the barista's favorite A Perfect Day For Bananafish and from what I can tell is Salinger's most famous short story. I think that's justified as it was amazing. Loading with intrigue it centers around a young recently married couple on vacation in Florida. The wife has a phone conversation with her mother back home and her husband tells a sad story about bananafish to another young vacationer on the beach. Sad and impossible to forget.

The rest of the stories are all classic Salinger, the language is all his, the banter between characters is amazing and his delicate handling of working his way to the point of the story in an indirect way is crazy good how it comes together, often on the last page.

Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut is a good little story where 2 former sorority sisters get together for a visit in CT.

Just Before the War with the Eskimos is about a young girl, her friend she plays tennis with and that friends brother. This one more than all the others reminded me of Catcher and I wonder if the tennis friend is a character in that book.

The Laughin Man is about a group of kids who participate in a kind of after school program and the mentor of that group. The innocence of relationships between adults and kids in those days is a sharp contrast with all the recent bad news stories in the last few years.

Down At The Dinghy, loved this story surrounding a young affluent mom and her young son who likes to run away all the down to the dock at their lake house or the local park when they're in New York. This one was probably my second favorite story in the book.

For Esme- With Love And Squalor was a story about a young American soldier training in Europe who meets a really young woman on a day off. This one has a Lolita feel despite anything directly sexual. I'm probably way off because of the age I live in but that's how it feels to me.

Pretty Mouth And Green My Eyes is a story about a conversation about an older man who's sleeping with a young woman and a call from a college who's concerned his wife left a party to have an affair. You're not sure if the girl the older gentleman is sleeping with is the other man's wife until the very end.

De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period is about a young man dealing with the recent death of his mother faking his way into a job as an art instructor at a mail away art school.

Teddy is about a family on a cruise ship and was a great little story. Teddy the main character is an extremely brilliant 10 year old philosopher. Another interesting story that leaves you thinking.

After finishing the book I'm glad I took my time with it mostly reading one or two stories a day. I think if it was rushed through too fast the stories might not have time to bang around in the back of the brain enough.