I've been having a little trouble accessing blogspot this past week, but things seem to be fine now.
Cap'n Ahab and his crew made their scheduled drop off last Tuesday, right on time. As you might guess, this week's package contained Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. For those keeping track, it was the Two of Diamonds.
I immediately jumped right into it, having good memories from the last time I read it. If you've never read it, I'm not even going to explain what it is about. You are obviously a)illiterate b)unamerican or c)subhuman. What I'm saying is that everyone who has been a teenager has dug this book and if you didn't, how can I help you now? Even crazy serial killers have read this book!
I initially read it in college. I wanted to see if, now that I'm an adult, I'd bring anything new to the reading. I'm not so sure that I did really. Mostly I was just filled with a feeling of nostalgia. I remembered what it was like to be a much younger Beepy, which was a lot of fun (both being the younger Beepy and remembering her). I also realized that the guy I was dating at the time had a lot in common with Holden, except the craziness. He was a nice memory too. If you're out there, baby, Kiss Kiss.
By the way, the cover I have downloaded here is not the cover of my copy. Mine is the plain red cover with yellow lettering. I picked this cover to download because J.D. would hate it. I heard that he wanted the cover to be plain white and was horrified by the original cover which, I remember, was very busy. There was a kid, a bunch of shops, a street sign. It was not hip and cool. So angry was he, at the first opportunity he resold the rights to a different publisher. And yes, this ex-boyfriend of mine had a copy of that unapproved cover. Sigh.
The second book of this shipment is Spartina by John Casey (the Seven of Spades). It won the National Book Award a million years ago. Okay maybe 1988 or 1989. You younger readers won't remember but it was once all the rage among the reading public. So far all I can tell you is that it is about a guy, who doesn't have a lot of money, building a boat - a big boat - in his back yard. I'll be spending today getting more acquainted.
8 comments:
Your ex-boyfriend could retire on the profit from that 1st edition "Catcher in the Rye." (and doesn't that edition also have the alternate ending, where the Caulfield family meets in the park and then has dinner at Nobu? I always thought that was touching.)
Gawd, he probably spilt beer on it before putting out his cigarette on the cover. Sigh. (he was beautiful...)
I don't remember the ending (yes, I read his copy - Sigh). I found, while rereading, that I'd remembered hardly any of the details.
Well, on the bad side, 'Spartina' stinks. On the good side, 'Catcher in the Rye' stinks a little less.
What was the final verdict on 'The Duke's Children'? Abandoned unfinished?
Reading Catcher in the Rye for the second time in an honors english full of cheerleaders and imbeciles who could, like, relate to Holden, totally- detroyed the book for me.
Also, this thing has helped create the "Hi, I'm Special" culture of the last ten years.
(shudder)
Just because Holden Caulfield is a jaded adolescent does not mean jaded adolescents are going to dig him. When my class read it in sophomore year we were actually too jaded to appreciate what was going on. Holden Caulfield is all like, "You are all a bunch of phonies," and our collective reaction was, "Who does this phony think he is?"
Jeff, ya kill me.
Deb,
I never read 'Catcher in the Rye'. So, which am I? a, b, or c? Wanna fight??
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