Jerome David Salinger(Jerome David Salinger)

His writing career began by publishing short stories in New York magazines. During the Second World War, the writer took part in the military operations of American troops in Europe from the very beginning of the Normandy landings. He took part in the liberation of several concentration camps.

His first story, The Young Folks, was published in the magazine Story in 1940. Salinger's first serious fame was brought by the short story A Perfect Day for Bananafish (1948) - the story of one day in the lives of a young man, Seymour Glass, and his wife.

Eleven years after its first publication, Salinger released his only novel, The Catcher in the Rye (1951), which was critically acclaimed and remains especially popular with high school and university students who find in the views and behavior of the hero, Holden Caulfield , a close echo of their own moods. The book was banned in several countries and in some places in the United States for being depressed and using abusive language, but is now included in the lists of recommended reading in many American schools.

In 1953, the collection Nine Stories was published. In the 60s, the novels Franny and Zooey (Franny and Zooey) and the story Raise High the Roof Beam (Carpenters) were published.

After The Catcher in the Rye became a resounding success, Salinger began to lead a reclusive life, refusing to give interviews. After 1965 he stopped publishing, writing only for himself. Moreover, he imposed a ban on the reprinting of his early writings (before “The banana fish is well caught”) and stopped several attempts to publish his letters. In recent years, he had little to no interaction with the outside world, living behind a high fence in a mansion in the town of Cornish, New Hampshire, and engaging in a variety of spiritual practices, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, yoga, macrobiotics, Dianetics, and alternative medicine. .

All these years he did not stop writing, but he lost all interest in the lifetime publication of his books. According to Margaret Salinger, her father developed a special labeling system - red marked manuscripts that should be published after death without any editing, blue - in need of editing. The exact number of future bestsellers, however, is also unknown.

As, however, about other aspects of the writer's life. Locals say they have occasionally seen him at Universalist churches and in local restaurants.
They have long become accustomed to the neighborhood with the classic and imbued with respect for his seclusion. Everyone here knew about the location of his home, but it was revealed to crazy fans all these years with obvious reluctance. Moreover, attempts to penetrate this ivory tower were not crowned with particular success for anyone.

The last time the name of the writer appeared in the information field was in 2009, when he filed a lawsuit against the Swede Frederik Kolting. Hiding under a pseudonym, the author dared to compose a sequel to The Catcher in the Rye, entitled 60 Years Later: Coming Out of the Rye. The novel tells about a certain 76-year-old Mr. K., who escapes from a nursing home and wanders around New York, remembering his youth, like Holden Caulfield, who once escaped from a boarding school. Salinger not without reason accused the Swede, hiding under the pseudonym JD California of plagiarism, and in July last year his claim was satisfied. Many hoped this summer that the writer would break his seclusion and tell at least a little about his life during these years, but this never happened. And he himself, it seems, was not necessary. Now more than ever it becomes clear that Salinger, like no one else, understood the truth, which has lost its meaning in our time - the author receives eternal life only thanks to his works. And this, third, life of Salinger is still waiting for us.

In the USSR and Russia, his works were translated and published, and gained popularity, especially among the intelligentsia. The most successful and famous are the translations by Rita Wright-Kovaleva.

The famous American writer Jerome David Salinger became one of the most influential authors of the 20th century. The most famous publication of the writer was the novel "The Catcher in the Rye". As for the volume, here the contribution to literature cannot be called great, but few writers could be put on the same level with him.

Childhood and youth

Jerome David Salinger was born on January 1, 1919 in New York City. The boy's father, Solomon Salinger, was a Jew of Lithuanian origin, who was engaged in the wholesale trade of smoked meats and cheeses. Miriam's mother, who before the wedding bore the name Mary Gillick, who was of Scotch-Irish descent, converted to Judaism. In the family, in addition to Jerome, his older sister Doris was brought up. The difference between the children is 8 years and 2 months.

The father sought to raise his son an educated person. In 1936, the young man graduated from a military school in the city of Valley Forge. Here he made his debut in literature: Jerome wrote 3 stanzas for the school anthem, which is still performed today.

In the summer of 1937, Salinger attended lectures at New York University, and after a year he was in Poland, where in the city of Bydgoszcz, at the request of his father, he studied the production of sausages. Returning home, he attended lectures at Ursinus College, Pennsylvania, and in 1939 he entered Columbia University, where he attended a course of lectures on short history, read by W. Burnett.

As a result, David did not graduate from any educational institution and did not show career aspirations. By this, he aroused the displeasure of his father, with whom he eventually quarreled forever.

In the spring of 1942, Jerome was drafted into the army, where he graduated from the officer-sergeant school of the signal troops. The following year, with the rank of sergeant, the man was transferred to counterintelligence and sent to the city of Nashville (Tennessee).

Creation

The main characters of most of Salinger's works are children under 17 years old. However, he can hardly be called a "children's" writer. In his work, the author raises the theme of confrontation between a teenager and the world around him. The heroes of the works contain an existence that does not find certain boundaries.

The debut story "Young People" in 1940 was published by the magazine "Stori". As for the first serious fame, she came after the publication of "It's Good to Catch a Banana Fish," which describes the day of Seymour Glass and his wife.

11 years after the publication of the first work, on July 16, 1951, the only novel “The Catcher in the Rye” was published, the author worked on this story for 10 years.

Literary critics of that time approved of the novel, which is still not losing popularity. However, the book was banned in some countries and US states due to depressiveness and swear words.

By the release of the novel, 26 works by Jerome were published in various editions, including 7 of 9 short stories. In 1953, they compiled a separate collection called Nine Stories. In the 60s, the work "Franny and Zooey" and "Above the rafters, carpenters" were published.

Personal life

In 1942, Jerome began dating Una, the daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill. But soon she met and subsequently married him.

Salinger's first wife was a German woman, Sylvia Welter. He first arrested a Nazi, and then married her. Together they returned to America, where for some time they lived in the house of Jerome's parents. But the marriage was short-lived - not having lived even a year, the couple broke up.

According to Salinger's daughter, the reason for the gap was the incompatibility of opinions: later, the author came up with the contemptuous nickname "Salva" for the girl, which translates from English as "saliva".

The second wife of the writer was a student Claire Douglas, daughter of art critic Robert Langton Douglas. The meeting took place in 1950, at that time Claire was 16 years old, and the author was 31 years old. A girl from a respected British family traveled across the Atlantic away from the war.

Some sources claim that the author seduced the young Claire, but this is not entirely accurate. At that time, Jerome was spiritually cultivating and abstaining from intimacy. An Indian guru acted as his mentor, and the practices were reflected in the writer's works.

Claire and Jerome married in 1955, the family had a daughter, Margaret, and a son, Matthew. Salinger insisted that his wife drop out of school 4 months before graduation and move in with him. The girl succumbed to persuasion and did as her lover asked.

The house in which the young family lived could hardly be called habitable. Nevertheless, as Margaret reports from the words of her mother, the already famous writer demanded from his wife gourmet meals and a change of bed linen 2 times a week.

As a child, the daughter was often sick, but the man, based on his convictions, refused to call a doctor. Later, Claire confessed to her daughter that she literally walked on the edge, thinking about committing suicide during pregnancy.

According to Margaret, she and her brother were born by accident, the girl believes that for JD they were hardly desirable children. But the writer turned out to be a good father: he often played with the kids and carried away stories of his own composition.

However, he was constantly irresistibly attracted to women. In 1966, the writer divorced Claire, and soon her place was taken by the journalist Joyce Maynard, who at that time was 18 years old.

Salinger's last wife was Colin, she was 50 years younger.

Death

After The Catcher in the Rye became popular, Salinger led a reclusive life. After 1965, the author stopped publishing - he wrote stories only for himself.

In New Hampshire, Jerome David Salinger died of natural causes at his home on January 27, 2010. The writer's literary agent said that in 2009 Salinger injured his pelvic bone, but he felt good for a long time.

The documentary "The Catcher in the Rye" tells about the personality and life of Salinger.

• At school, Jerome was often mocked because of his middle name - David. To avoid trouble, Salinger forbade teachers to address him by his middle name. By the way, the boy studied very poorly, only expressive performances at drama circle performances can be distinguished from school successes.
• In 1942, the writer went to work, where he participated in the well-known operation to land paratroopers in Normandy. Returning home, Salinger was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of a nervous breakdown.
• The author had a hard time experiencing his popularity after the publication of The Catcher in the Rye. Jerome did not want to communicate with journalists, led a reclusive life. With a categorical refusal, the writer responded to an attempt to create a collection of his letters.

• The writer was engaged in the study of alternative medicine, Hinduism and Buddhism. His outlook was very peculiar.
• Despite the fact that Salinger bought himself a house in the distance, near the forest, surrounded it with a fence and hung signs "No Trespassing", the writer could be regularly seen in a bar with different girls.
• Salinger gave one interview, after all, to a high school student for the Claremont Daily Eagle. When the writer learned that the text of the article was on the front page of the local newspaper, he was furious. It was after this incident that Jerome, who felt betrayed, surrounded the house with a high fence.

• Salinger bequeathed his unpublished works to be published between 2015 and 2020. Among them are autobiographical information about interrogations conducted by him during the Second World War.
• In the story "The Lost Letter", the author's real phone number was published: 603-675-5244.
• At the end of 2016, The Center for Cartoon Studies opened a call for applications from artists wishing to live in Salinger's former residence. The winner was given a small scholarship, which allowed him to concentrate on creating a special work.

• Once literary critic Ian Hamilton, clearly not looking for easy ways, tried to write a biography of the author. But Jerome was so furious that he sued Hamilton to ban the use of the previously unpublished letters.
• 3 "numbered" cats lived in Salinger's house: Kitty-1, Kitty-2 and Kitty-3.

Quotes

Because a person died, you can’t stop loving him, damn it - especially if he was better than all the living, you know?

It would be better if some things did not change. It would be nice if they could be put in a glass case and not touched.

A woman's body is a violin, you have to be a great musician to make it sound.

The day will come and you will have to decide where to go. And immediately you have to go where you decided. Immediately. You have no right to waste a minute. You can't do this.

I imagined how small children play in the evening in a huge field, in rye. Thousands of kids, and around - not a soul, not a single adult, except for me. And I'm standing on the very edge of the cliff, over the abyss, you understand? And my job is to catch the kids so that they do not fall into the abyss. You see, they are playing and do not see where they are running, and then I run up and catch them so that they do not break. That's all my work. Guard the guys over the abyss in the rye. I know it's stupid, but it's the only thing I really want. I must be a fool.

Bibliography

• 1940 - Teenagers
• 1940 - See Eddie
• 1941 - Guilty, I will correct
• 1941 - The Soul of an Unhappy Story
• 1942 - Lois Taggett's protracted debut
• 1942 - Unofficial report about one infantryman
• 1943 - Brothers Varioni
• 1943 - Overturned forest
• 1944 - By mutual agreement
• 1944 - Gentle Sergeant
• 1944 - Last day of the last dismissal
• 1944 - Once a week - you will not be lost
• 1945 - Elaine
• 1945 - I'm crazy
• 1945 - Soldier in France
• 1945 - Herring in a barrel
• 1945 - Outsider
• 1946 - Light riot on Madison Avenue
• 1948 - Familiar girl
• 1949 - The Man Who Laughed
• 1949 - In the boat
• 1951 - And these lips and green eyes
• 1952 - De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period
• 1953 - Teddy
• 1955 - Above the rafters, carpenters
• 1959 - Seymour: An Introduction
• 1965 - Hapworth's 16th Day

J. D. Salinger was born and raised in the fashionable area of ​​New York - in Manhattan. His father, Jewish by nationality, was a prosperous merchant of kosher cheese, his mother had Scotch-Irish roots. Jerome's childhood name was Sonny. The Salinger family had the most beautiful apartment on Park Avenue. After several years of prep school, Jerome attended Valley Forge Military Academy (1934-1936). Friends at the academy later recalled that he was a caustic and witty man. In 1937, at the age of 18, Salinger spent five months in Europe. From 1937 to 1938 he studied at Ursinus College, and then at New York University. She falls in love with Oona O'Neill and writes letters to her every day, later, to Salinger's considerable surprise, she married Charlie Chaplin, who was much older than her.

In 1939, Salinger studied short story writing at Columbia University with Whitt Burnett, founder and editor of Story Magazine. During the Second World War, Salinger was drafted and served in the infantry, participated in the Normandy operation, his comrades said that he was very brave, a real hero. In the very first months spent in Europe, Salinger manages to write several stories and meet Ernest Hemingway in Paris. He also took part in one of the bloodiest episodes of the Hürtgenwald war, a futile battle where he witnessed the horrors of war.

In his famous short story "Dear Esmé - With Love and Squalor" ("For Esmé - With Love and Squalor"), Salinger portrayed a weary American soldier. He begins a correspondence with a thirteen-year-old British girl who helps him regain his interest in life. According to Salinger biographer Ian Hamilton, the writer himself was hospitalized due to stress. After serving as an army signalman and counterintelligence officer from 1942 to 1946, he devoted himself to writing. He played poker with other aspiring writers and was known for being gloomy in character but winning all the time. Salinger regarded Hemingway and Steinbeck as second-rate writers, but praised Melville. In 1945 Salinger married a French woman named Sylvia, she was a doctor. They were later divorced, and in 1955 Salinger married Claire Douglas, daughter of the British art historian Robert Langton Douglas. The marriage broke up in 1967, when Salinger delved into his inner world and Zen Buddhism.

Salinger's early stories appeared in publications such as The Story, where his first story was published in 1940, The Saturday Evening Post, and Esquire, and then The New Yorker, which published almost all of his later stories. texts. In 1948, "A Perfect Day For Bananafish" appeared, about Seymour Glass committing suicide. This is the earliest mention of the Glass family, stories about which would become the mainstay of his writing. The Glass cycle continued in the collections Franny and Zooey (1961), Raise the Rafters, Carpenters (1963), and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). Several stories are told from the point of view of Buddy Glass. "Hapworth's 16th Day 1924" is written in the form of a letter from a summer camp, in which seven-year-old Seymour portrays himself and his younger brother Buddy. “So, when I look back and listen to those five or six most original old American poets—maybe more—and also read the many talented eccentric poets and—especially lately—those able, new-minded stylists who I am almost completely convinced that we had only three or four almost absolutely irreplaceable poets and that, in my opinion, Simor will certainly be numbered among them.(“Cimor: Introduction”, translated by R. Wright-Kovaleva).

Twenty stories published in the Colliers Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, and The New Yorker between 1941 and 1948 appeared in the 1974 "pirate" two-volume edition of J. .D. Salinger". Many of them reflect Salinger's army service. Subsequently, the writer experienced an Indo-Buddhist influence. He became a passionate follower of The Teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, a book on Hindu mysticism, which was translated into English by Swami Nihilananda and Joseph Campbell.

Salinger's first novel, The Catcher in the Rye, was immediately selected by the Book of the Month Club and gained immense international fame. It sold 250,000 copies annually. Salinger did not try to help the publicity, and stated that his photographs should not be used in connection with the book. He later turned down requests for a film adaptation of the book.

Initial reviews for the work were mixed, although most critics considered the novel to be brilliant. Its title is taken from a line by Robert Burns misquoted by protagonist Holden Caulfield, seeing himself as a "catcher in the rye" who must keep all the children in the world from falling off some cliffs of madness. The work is written as a monologue, in living slang. The 16-year-old troubled hero - as Salinger was in his youth - runs away from school during the Christmas holidays to New York, finds himself and loses his virginity. He spends the evening going to a nightclub, meets a prostitute to no avail, and the next day meets an old girlfriend. Then he gets drunk and sneaks home drunk. Holden's former teacher harasses him. Holden meets with his sister to tell her about the runaway and the breakdown. The novel's humor is similar to Mark Twain's classics The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but its worldview is more disappointing. Holden describes everything as "fake" and is constantly on the lookout for sincerity. He is one of the first characters to embody teenage existential fear, but full of life, he is in many ways the literary opposite of the young Werther, the hero of Goethe.

Rumors circulated from time to time that Salinger would publish another novel, or that he was being published under a pseudonym, perhaps as Thomas Pynchon. “A real artist, I noticed, will endure everything. (Even praise, as I eagerly hope)”,” Salinger wrote in Simur: An Introduction. Since the late 60s, he has avoided publicity. Journalists assumed that since he did not give interviews, he had something to hide. In 1961, Time magazine sent a team of journalists to investigate his private life. “I like to write. I love to write. But I only write for myself and for my own pleasure,” Salinger said in a 1974 interview with The New York Times. However, according to Joyce Maynard, who has been close to the author for a long time since the 1970s, Salinger still writes, but does not allow anyone to see the work. Maynard was eighteen years old when she received a letter from the author, and after an intense correspondence she moved in with him.

Ian Hamilton's disapproved biography of Salinger was rewritten because he disagreed with the extensive quoting of his personal letters. New version, “Looking for J.D. Salinger”, appeared in 1988. In 1992, a fire broke out in Salinger's home in the Corniche, but he managed to escape reporters who saw an opportunity to interview him. Since the late 80s, Salinger has been married to Colleen O'Neill. Maynard's story about her relationship with Salinger, "At Home in the World", appeared in October 1998. Salinger broke his silence through his lawyers in 2009, when they began legal action to stop publishing an unauthorized sequel to Caulfield's story, entitled Sixty Years Later: Wading Through the Rye, released in the UK under the pseudonym John David California. books.

About “The Catcher In the Rye”
part 2 , part 3
Story about the book (in English).

Throughout the book, Salinger poses questions, bombarding the reader with them in an attempt to stir his thoughts. Ask, answer, leave unanswered - you can do anything with them, the main thing is not to stop, continue to search and fight, grow, in the end.
This novel is primarily about growing up, becoming a new person and finding yourself. We get into the world of the protagonist for 5 days, but this is more than enough. In every day, situations that happen to them, we see a serious struggle, questions and attempts to understand what is characteristic of any person, but especially at the age of Holden Caulfield. I thought about the title of the novel: why “over the abyss”? It seems that rye is such a symbol of childhood, a ball of cotton wool that protects from the anxieties and unrest of the world. But any "field" has its own boundaries, beyond which there is something else, in this case, an abyss. She, in my opinion, acts as a kind of symbol of growing up and, of course, of the unknown. Sooner or later you have to face it, but is it as scary as our subconscious and consciousness draws for itself? Is it necessary to fall into it?
Secondary characters also help to discover the truth: “It seems to me that you are rushing towards some terrible abyss” - and it seems that this is said specifically about growing up. Or, for example: “This is a dangerous abyss. Anyone who falls into it will never feel the bottom. It falls, falls, without end" - what is called "discovering the unknown". The hero, through the prism of other people's words, forms his own understanding of reality: "It seemed to me that I would suddenly fall down, down, down, and they would never see me again." And finally, his final conclusion: “The children play in the evening in a huge field, in rye. And I'm standing on the very edge of the cliff, over the abyss, you understand? And my job is to catch the kids so that they do not fall into the abyss. They play and do not see where they are running, and then I run up and catch them so that they do not break. That's my whole job - to guard the guys over the abyss in the rye. And “guard” is so consonant with the word “save” ... In the end, does the hero want to become an adult? He is on the move, in search of his place and place next to other people in the constant need to make a choice. It's normal when you're only 16 years old...

I bought this book in Auchan, I accidentally noticed this series of books, I was interested in the compact format of the publication. In the era of electronic publishing, I do not go to bookstores. Therefore, a great idea to post in Auchan, I would never have known about this series. I like the series for the following reasons: 1) Books from this series take up little space at home. 2) A very convenient format for reading on the road - especially on an airplane during takeoff and landing, when electronic devices are asked to be turned off. It's good to have classics in this series - i.e. those books that can be re-read again and again, as, in fact, done. Thanks for this series! I don't see the point in leaving a review for this product. :-)

It would probably be difficult to come up with a simpler and at the same time suitable title for a collection that brings together completely different stories, each of which can be considered an independent, independent work. But this is only at first glance. What do these stories have in common? First, it is the style and style of JD Salinger. Those who are firsthand familiar with his more famous work, The Catcher in the Rye, will undoubtedly see here the same features of his writing style: literary correctness, elegance, linguistic “purism” are alien to J. D. Salinger’s style. In all these works, a significant place is given to the dialogues of the characters, which are replete with slang expressions, often curses. Thus, the writer recreates a portrait of living modern speech, not very correct and “beautiful”, sometimes incoherent, even strange, but nonetheless close and understandable, as if this conversation was accidentally overheard and recorded on a nearby street, which is very well conveyed and preserved in translation. However, this is just one of the stylistic incarnations of the author, who, if necessary, skillfully uses elements of the game with style, moving from colloquial speech to more bookish, which often serves as one of the ways to characterize the characters (“Dear Esme with love - and vileness”, “Blue Period de Daumier-Smith", "Teddy"). The second connecting thread is the chronological framework and the setting: almost all the stories cover the post-war period of the late 1940s and early 1950s, sometimes retrospectively going a little further to the 1920s, and New York, native the city of J. Salinger himself. Finally, these are the main characters of the short stories - a little strange, eccentric, as if not from this world. And last but not least, the war is to blame for this, which has a devastating effect on the psyche and life of a person (“Banana fish is well caught”, “Dear Esme with love - and vileness”). The images of children appearing in almost all 9 stories are also interesting. They are spontaneous, mischievous, but at the same time observant, sensitive, understanding and capable of sympathy. Often, J. Salinger takes very everyday situations as the basis of the plot, such as a quarrel and jealousy between spouses, disobedience of a child, relations between parents and children. An inexperienced reader will turn the final page of almost every story, being in some kind of bewilderment, because here you will not find either a direct author's assessment, or a conclusion, or a given trajectory of the movement of thought, and even the ending as such: the short story by J. Salinger are as paradoxical as life itself, which, in turn, is made up of such trifles. But this apparent simplicity can just have a stronger effect, forcing us to think about the deeper meaning lurking between the lines, about the complexity, inconsistency of the structure of human nature and the soul. Here one involuntarily recalls the famous “iceberg technique” by E. Hemingway or the multi-faceted and multi-level novels of J. Fowles, in which someone can see only an exciting plot, while others can see a strong intellectual component. So in this collection of stories you can find everything and not find anything. Everything depends on our view of the world, people and things. In this sense, the composition of the collection looks very successful, since the quintessence of the author's philosophical views lies precisely in the last story, or rather, is embodied in the image of a 10-year-old little prodigy Teddy. “Most people don't know how to look at things differently,” says the little hero. To abandon logic, to go beyond the usual and standard framework - this is the way to true knowledge of the world, such as it really is, i.e. without boundaries imposed by our consciousness. This is what the writer wants to achieve from us. He sets out this philosophical theory for us and immediately gives us the opportunity to put it into practice, since the ending of the story remains open (here one can see a clear antithesis with the first story in the collection) both in terms of plot and plot, and in our interpretation of the underlying idea. It is no coincidence that J. Salinger makes a child who, despite his young age, thinks in a completely adult way, but has a more flexible and receptive consciousness and the ability to perceive and evaluate the surrounding reality in a different way, in his own way. It can be assumed that it is this combination of adult sophistication and childish simplicity, openness to the world that is so dear to the author, who seems to call on each of us to keep this child in ourselves if we want to see and find new meanings and values ​​in this life.

Where do ducks go in Central Park when the pond freezes over?

Holden Confield - Salinger's hero - what did he do wrong that most people do not like him so much, although many people like the book itself, and even very much, and isn't it an echo of the painful book hypocrisy when the book catches, but the characters annoy, and vice versa? I love this book and Caulfield too.
The guy is really smart and smart. Says what he thinks, and mostly it's true. We are annoyed by people who pick pimples in public, or the same girls who go crazy because they suddenly decided to kiss them. Childishly naive, but similar to the truth from Holden, who changed any school because of his quarrelsomeness and runs away to the city during the holidays in order to take a break from everyone and see his beloved sister. He also seems to be falling in love, but is too cowardly to pick up the phone. The mind is one thing, but for the feelings you need courage.
So discouragement and loneliness brings the guy into pubs and taverns, restaurants and even hotels, where he makes trouble, out of inexperience, remaining robbed by some dubious pimp with his escort.
But more he loves walks in the park and the ducks there, which always disappear somewhere. And no one can answer him anything, can you imagine what people think of him?
He still sees his sister. Sneaks home like a thief, remembers his childhood, his brother, who is no longer around, laments about his life. A person does not know where to move, and what he wants from life at the moment. Can he be blamed for this?
What's with the rye? Everyone interprets in their own way. The Catcher in the Rye? Over the abyss into the unknown, because the field of rye is endless, like the sea itself, who knows what is beyond it.
The book is worth attention and discussion, but there is nothing to criticize it for, you don’t judge a person only by the fact that you didn’t like him at the first meeting? So this book needs no condemnation. Taste and color, right?

You won me over, Jerry...

It all started with the novel "The Catcher in the Rye", which all the youth stubbornly criticized in different ways, then the reading of "Nine Stories" followed, and soon I came to this book - "Higher the rafters, carpenters. Seymour: Introduction". What to say? Salinger has never disappointed me. Moreover, I fell in love with my work. Of the published works of Salinger, I now have not read only the stories "Franny" and "Zoey". And I diligently delay reading because I want to read much, much more from this author than just two stories. And there is no opportunity to read something else Salinger's. But hopefully there will be more.

This edition is notable for its miniature size, serial design, beautiful cover, thick paper and the content of two stories by Salinger at once, as mentioned above. I was lucky to be the owner of all Salinger in the "Intellectual bestseller (mini)" series.

First, about the story "Above the rafters, carpenters." Easy to read, great story! The story is told from the perspective of one of the heroes of the story - Buddy Glass. The story gives more information about Seymour Glass (whose brother is Buddy), already familiar to many readers from the story of the same Salinger "It's good to catch a banana fish." Personally, I could not wait to learn more about this hero! And Salinger largely satisfied my curiosity with both stories included in this publication.
What is remarkable: after reading the characters, you immediately begin to miss them, you become attached to them. I would like to know what and with whom happened next, how the lives of each hero turned out, even if negatively colored. For example, I’m still even interested in where that deaf-and-dumb old man went from Buddy and Seymour’s apartment ... And if Salinger wrote a separate story about this (well, or just about him, about this old man), I would the work would not be perceived as some kind of spin-off sucked out of the finger, but, on the contrary, would cause genuine joy! "Higher rafters, carpenters" - a philosophical thing, interesting, fascinating ... In a word - magnificent! This is without exaggeration a masterpiece!

Relations with the story "Simore: Introduction" did not develop immediately. Reading seemed painful, the story was read slowly, being somehow boring and viscous. Thoughts crept in that:
1) Perhaps the translator is to blame. I read somewhere that the translation of the Simorovsky cycle by R. Wright-Kovaleva was worse than the translation of "The Catcher in the Rye".
2) ummm... Is that really Salinger?
A terrible thought came to mind: maybe quit reading? But I never allowed myself to do that...
But very soon - somewhere, probably, in the middle - I was so imbued with Buddy Glass! I forgot to say that in this story the narration is conducted on his behalf. But now he's... an older man and a university lecturer. And how, I must say, it becomes a pity! Indeed, behind the boring and inconsistent narration, there is a real drama of a child prodigy, forever deprived of parental attention and a guy who went through the war and subsequently lost his beloved brother - the person who understood him like no other. And now this man - a failed writer who lives a completely boring life, a life of the past, a life of memories of him, of his brother ... - wants to write a book about him, Simor, sharing with everyone the most precious thing he has left in life. ..
Generally a strange thing. First you read through the force, and then mentally beg Buddy not to stop, to continue to pour out his soul. After all, I, the reader, will understand everything! It is also strange that it is generally forgotten at some moments that it is not Buddy Glass who writes this, but the writer Jerome David Salinger. And it's amazing.
In this story, it turns out that it was Buddy Glass who wrote the stories "It's Good to Catch a Banana Fish" and "Teddy", which are included in Salinger's collection Nine Stories. For me, this is a reader shock, to be honest.

I love you Salinger. And your heroes - no less.

US Literature

David Salinger Jerome

Biography

Jerome David Salinger (eng. Jerome David Salinger; born 1919) is an American writer, a classic of US literature of the 20th century, best known as the author of the novel The Catcher in the Rye.

Salinger was born on January 1, 1919 in New York to a Jewish and Irish mother. His father, a wealthy merchant Solomon Salinger, sought to give his son a good education. As a young man, Jerome attended the military academy at Valley Forge. He was educated at New York schools, a military school and three colleges. However, nowhere did he show any particular success or career aspirations, which caused his father's displeasure, with whom he eventually quarreled forever. His writing career began by publishing short stories in New York magazines. During the Second World War, the writer took part in the military operations of American troops in Europe from the very beginning of the Normandy landings. He took part in the liberation of several concentration camps.

His first story, The Young Folks, was published in the magazine Story in 1940. Salinger's first serious fame was brought by the short story A Perfect Day for Bananafish (1948) - the story of one day in the lives of a young man, Seymour Glass, and his wife.

Eleven years after its first publication, Salinger released his only novel, The Catcher in the Rye (1951), which was critically acclaimed and remains especially popular with high school and university students who find in the views and behavior of the hero, Holden Caulfield , a close echo of their own moods. The book was banned in several countries and in some places in the United States for being depressed and using abusive language, but is now included in the lists of recommended reading in many American schools.

In 1953, the collection Nine Stories was published. In the 60s, the novels Franny and Zooey (Franny and Zooey) and the story Raise High the Roof Beam (Carpenters) were published.

After the story "The Catcher in the Rye" gained resounding popularity, Salinger began to lead the life of a recluse, refusing to give interviews. After 1965 he stopped publishing, writing only for himself. Moreover, he imposed a ban on the reprinting of his early writings (before “The banana fish is well caught”) and stopped several attempts to publish his letters. In recent years, he has had virtually no interaction with the outside world, living behind a high fence in a mansion in the town of Cornish, New Hampshire, and engaging in a variety of spiritual practices, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, yoga, macrobiotics, Dianetics, and non-traditional medicine.

In the USSR and Russia, his works were translated and published, and gained popularity, especially among the intelligentsia. The most successful and famous are the translations by Rita Wright-Kovaleva.

Jerome David Salinger was born into a Jewish family on 01/01/1919 in New York. He graduated from the military academy at Valley Forge. He also studied at several New York schools, at a military school and 3 colleges. But nowhere did he find much success.

He began his literary career with short stories in American magazines. His debut - "Young People" - was published in 1940 in the magazine "Story". He took part in the fighting in Europe during the Second World War, was one of the liberators of several concentration camps.

In 1948, a short story "The banana fish is well caught" is published, which for the first time brings Salinger serious fame. In 1951, the writer's only novel, The Catcher in the Rye, was published. Critics approve of it and high school students and students read it to them. Due to the use of abusive language and depressiveness, this book was banned in some countries and even in certain districts of the United States, but now it is an integral part of literature.

In 1953, the collection "Nine Stories" was published, followed by the short stories "Franny and Zooey", as well as the story "Above the rafters, carpenters."

After 1965, Salenger stopped publishing altogether, continuing to compose only for himself. In addition, he forbade the reprinting of his early writings and the publication of a collection of letters. At the end of his life, the writer practically refuses to communicate with people, lives alone on his estate (Cornish, New Hampshire), engages in various spiritual practices, including yoga, Buddhism, Hinduism, and alternative medicine.