J. D. Salinger's Nine Stories

Some literature draws you in and you commit to a long term relationship with the author and his subjects. That relationship does not require that your idol be great, but merely consistent. This can be said of Jerome David "J.D." Salinger, possibly best known for his work The Catcher in the Rye. A master of wonderful prose, he sometimes creates believable dialogue and interesting characters. Having a writing career that spanned nearly sixty years, Salinger offered few completed literary works; however, its his collection of short stories, Nine Stories, that is considered one of the greatest collections of all time.

About the Author

Born in New York in 1919, Salinger had unstable schooling, but was ultimately took writing classes. In these classes, his gift for vivid prose was discovered. After having his first work published, the young Salinger was drafted and saw action in World War II. His experiences, which included the Battle of the Bulge, left him emotionally scarred. After the war, Salinger returned to writing and was almost exclusively for New Yorker magazine. By 1953, after the success of his semi-autobiographical novel, The Catcher in the Rye, Nine Stories was published

The Collection

In Nine Stories, Salinger introduces Seymour Glass and family and others in his array of shorts. His most famous in the collection is A Perfect Day For Bananafish, a tale which seems to center on Mrs. Glass, but really is about Seymour's hopeless and ultimate suicide. The tales that follow include, Uncle Wiggily In Connecticut, Just Before the War With the Eskimos, Laughing Man, Down At the Dinghy, For Esme'- With Love and Squalor, Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes, and De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period.

While most, if not all the works, were previously published in the New Yorker, the stories focus on the lives of the self-absorbed and the unfulfilled. Salinger's characters seem to basked in wealth, but lack any glory that seeks redemption. He does toy with subplots about the travesties of war, youthful savants, and dysfunctional narcissism.

The Commentary

Salinger's lines flow like poetry at times, but do not adequately develop his characters. His work is akin to liking the strokes of a painting, but no understanding or truly appreciating the finished work. The stories do not seem to have a path or lesson, but seem to recollections of moments. They are more like outdated sketches about a world that no longer exists and about people we cannot hope to know or care about. His Glass family are physically transparent, but emotionally complicated. Other characters are simply wandering through life without purpose.

Salinger seems to incorporate much of the despair of his war experience into some of his stories and his seemingly unresolved feelings about life, aristocracy, and unfulfilled dreams. Salinger offers layered symbolism and often twist endings. His writing, while hard to read at times, is clever and almost lulls you into the mediocrity of his subjects. Their mediocrity forces the intelligent reader to almost overanalyze the characters purposes and to seek a lesson in each short.

Salinger is considered a complicated genius by some and a fair writer by others. Whether you agree or disagree, many consider Nine Stories one of his best literary works.