Franny and Zooey

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It's a hit!

I remember reading this book freshman year of college. Freshly independent, idealistic, and disillusioned with my 18 years living with my family. W... (show more)

I remember reading this book freshman year of college. Freshly independent, idealistic, and disillusioned with my 18 years living with my family. What really had they brought me? Not intellect, that's for sure, not religion, not challenges.

And I read this. I read this because I loved Catcher in the Rye, like every teenager does. (I know there's people who hate it, too... but still. Teenagers overall seem to adore this book) I was welcomed into the lives of the Glass family. And I read all of the rest of Salinger's books.

What I got from it, the first time around, was a fantasy escape. Here is your perfect, idiosyncratic family for the teenager bored and bitter at a middlebrow existence. They are smart, painfully smart, fiercely religious and unapoligetically elitist. Perfect perfect perfect.

What you get in that state of mind, is I think a misreading of Salinger's intentions. It is true that he kind of revels in the way his two main characters, Franny and Zooey look down at the rest of the world. The sarcasm is brutally and directed at everyone, including their not so smart and middlebrow parents.

What striking is how Zooey turns it on Franny. Zooey is as guilty of elitisism and narcissism as Franny is. And that's how it's so easy to ignore the final statement in the book. As a teenager, all I saw was two characters reflecting back a world that I saw. Full of phoniness, egos. The trouble is, these characters are older than I was and are struggling, unsuccessfully, to not see the world that way.

As I sat down to read it again, I was at the point of my life where I was sick of looking down at people. Sick of thinking I'm better. Sick of hearing political, artistic, and personal ideologies touted all over the place as a way to feel better about oneself, while I was of course doing it myself.

And as Zooey says, don't you realize that everyone's the fat lady? Don't you realize that every person, despite their flaws, is jesus christ. Don't you realize that it's not your business to judge? Don't you realize... (show less)

 

 

by Facebook User

No, it's a flop!

I had high hopes for this as I adore Catcher in the Rye but was sadly disappointed. It just seemed to drag on. Detailed and vivid character but ver... (show more)

I had high hopes for this as I adore Catcher in the Rye but was sadly disappointed. It just seemed to drag on. Detailed and vivid character but very little story, I had to force myself to finish it :( (show less)

 

 

by Barbara Grafham

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  A truly beautiful book. It covers the Salinger basics, exceptionalism, phonies, frustrated searches for meaning etc. The characters seem so real, I swear they keep on once the book is over. Try and get past any veneer of pretension, surely Zooey would complain about that but with more of a bite than any reviewer here. Interestingly, while the book takes some jabs at the theater it reads like a play, heavy on dialogue and primarily located in one apartment. But the true soul of the story ... (show more)

  A truly beautiful book. It covers the Salinger basics, exceptionalism, phonies, frustrated searches for meaning etc. The characters seem so real, I swear they keep on once the book is over. Try and get past any veneer of pretension, surely Zooey would complain about that but with more of a bite than any reviewer here. Interestingly, while the book takes some jabs at the theater it reads like a play, heavy on dialogue and primarily located in one apartment. But the true soul of the story is in how we relate to others, alive and dead. If you've ever have a tendency to withdraw from the world, read this book. Hell, read it twice. Because at times we all are or know a Franny. It's enough to make a girl want to spend the morning soaking in the bath. But the ending puts it all in perspective, bastards, freaks, fat ladies and the whole damn circus of life. (show less)

   

   

  by Sarah Campbell on May 13, 2009 at 11:10PM

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  The acclaimed author of Catcher in the Rye, Jerome David Salinger, has produced a handful of works, one of which is Franny and Zooey, a novella in two parts. Catcher is one of my favourite pieces of fiction because it so deftly captures the atomised nature of post-War America and the sense of disaffection that many young men feel in the face of stifling societal norms. So it was with a great sense of anticipation that I approached this work.

  However, given Salinger’s reputation, I found Fran... (show more)

  The acclaimed author of Catcher in the Rye, Jerome David Salinger, has produced a handful of works, one of which is Franny and Zooey, a novella in two parts. Catcher is one of my favourite pieces of fiction because it so deftly captures the atomised nature of post-War America and the sense of disaffection that many young men feel in the face of stifling societal norms. So it was with a great sense of anticipation that I approached this work.

  However, given Salinger’s reputation, I found Franny and Zooey for the most part a disappointment. It is a tale of an eccentric New York family, the Glass’s, who fancy themselves as the aristocrats of the north eastern intelligentsia. The precocious children (of whom the titular Franny and Zooey are two) all appeared on a radio show as kids - a trivia programme for prodigies called “Wise Child”. They have since emerged into young adulthood, the old certainties are lost, and each is trying to find his or her way in a confusing malaise.

  Following a luncheon with her egotistical boyfriend, Franny suffers a mental breakdown and returns home. She is desperate to escape the demands of the public and to retreat into the life of spiritual recluse, but Zooey will have none of it. The latter part of the book sees her brother's efforts to halt her downward descent with discussions on the meaning of art and religion – with much repartee in between.

  Franny and Zooey is written with the effortless style that is Salinger’s signature, with colloquial speech (like the ubiquitous "goddam") mixing with reflections on human nature and Eastern mysticism (which must have been bloody esoteric in the late 1950s!). The text also explores the duty of artists to create, and their struggle to find emotional peace amongst the churning waves of that creativity.

  Salinger sketches characters with remarkable dexterity, and you are immediately drawn into their world. However, what he depicts is merely an episode in that world rather than a fully developed narrative. Considering that my edition was just over 200 pages, too much time was spent describing unnecessary details - like the bric-a-brac in the living room - and not enough on unwrapping the relationship dynamics and inner tensions of these compelling people.

  I love short fiction, but this book’s brevity was a hindrance rather than a help. The usual rule-of-thumb with shorter pieces is that every sentence should count and I think JD wastes a lot of time with descriptive prose. Either the book should have been longer, or more focused, but as it stands it feels incomplete.

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  This review originally appeared on my blog, Quid Pro Quo:
  http://quidproquoza.blogspot.com

  Click here for more of my reviews:
  http://quidproquoza.blogspot.com/search/label/Book%20Reviews (show less)

   

   

  by David Ansara on Apr 12, 2009 at 12:58AM

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