Status
Call number
Series
Genres
Publication
Description
The "original, first-rate, serious, and beautiful" short fiction (New York Times Book Review) that introduced J. D. Salinger to American readers in the years after World War II, including "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and the first appearance of Salinger's fictional Glass family. Nine exceptional stories from one of the great literary voices of the twentieth century. Witty, urbane, and frequently affecting, Nine Stories sits alongside Salinger's very best work--a treasure that will passed down for many generations to come. The stories: A Perfect Day for Bananafish Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut Just Before the War with the Eskimos The Laughing Man Down at the Dinghy For Esmé--with Love and Squalor Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period Teddy… (more)
User reviews
Anyway, one or two of the stories, most especially "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut," I found over-wrought and not especially effective. One or two were good but went on too long, I thought. But there are several that are still and will always be, for me at least, examples of short story genius. "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," perhaps the Salinger short story most often anthologized, "The Laughing Man," "Down in the Dinghy," and, most especially, "For Esme--With Love and Squalor" are terrific and timeless. In these, Salinger best gets at the American human condition post-World War Two, as American's took stock, counted their losses, and tried to wade through the hollow, enforced "normality" of the materialistic world that was cropping up around them. As a teenager, it didn't occur to me as it did in this latest reading the extent to which almost all of these stories revolve around the damage done to families, psyches and dreams by the experience and/or consequences of the war.
'A Perfect Day for Bananafish' depicts a young man recently discharged from WWII on vacation with his wife, who spends the entirety of the story on the phone with her mother discussing her husband's mental state and reassuring her that he isn't completely dangerous. The husband, the main character, is rather indifferent and distant and only brightens up when he is talking with a toddler-aged girl with whom he swims in the ocean and tells the tragic tale of the bananafish.
'For Esme with Love and Squalor' wins the award both for best title and best story in the collection (rivaled closely by 'Teddy'). It is about a young American soldier who is in training in England not long before the Invasion of Normandy. He keeps to himself and seems to be a rather reflective guy, walking around this small English town. He meets a very young girl, maybe 13 or 14, who is having tea with her family in a cafe. She sits down with him and they share a very personal and odd conversation in which she asks him to write to her from the front and also to write her a story-- preferably "about squalor". The dialogue and strange connection between these two people, who are from rather separate worlds, shows the way people can unexpectedly find each other and have a surprising, almost spiritual connection.
'Teddy', the final story in the book, is about an extremely precocious 6 year old boy who is a dedicated Buddhist and is convinced that he has been reincarnated. He is being studied by scientists and psychologists who marvel at his intelligence and spiritual insights and who, unable to help themselves upon learning that he believes he can predict the future, demand to know their future and when they might die. The boy is on a cruise ship with his parents, an eccentric and somewhat cynical couple. He wanders off on his own and has a long conversation with a man on the deck of the ship in which he casually predicts his own death just before it occurs and finishes the story. This story is really about the conflict between logic and spirituality, the clash between the rational and irrational world. It's one of the most interesting discussions of spirituality and eastern religion that I've encountered.
- Peter K.
As I began this collection, my first thought was,
So, what was I reading concurrently that may have caused my gears to shift too slowly? A collection of humor pieces titled “Mirth of a Nation”. (My review of that collection is available if you are so inclined.) I chose the Salinger on purpose, feeling that I needed a break in the humor pieces and guessing that Salinger would be just the antidote. Well, antidote it may have been, but I wonder if it was not to the detriment of the antidote itself. So, I now figure I’ll have to go back in and reread some of the opening stories because, as I continued to read through, the stories got better and better. (Or, maybe more to the point, I became better at reading them.) Most have that same kind of seminal event that brings them to conclusion, (or even that sometimes too artsy “He looked at the blue sweater” type ending) but they fit better. And each story left me thinking about the story, how the pieces worked to a final understanding of the events, and what the writer was trying to say. To the point that the last story, “Teddy”, which also ends with a suicide (whoops, forgot the spoiler alert) worked seamlessly. Haunting, intriguing, memorable stories. The fact that a quick glance at the title and a couple of paragraphs can bring back to me the entire story says volumes about the quality and lasting power of each.
Now, having read Nine Stories, I wish I'd sought out all his other books years ago. This was
Many of these circumstances relate to World War II and its effects on soldiers and their loved ones, but I wouldn't say that war is a theme here so much as a shared experience. Salinger doesn't come right out and say anything about what these people have gone through. He never comments in an overt way. He gives us these characters' words, (and, in the first person stories, their thoughts), and lets us make of them what we will. It's up to the reader to figure out what happens to each character and what each story means. I found it enthralling and, in many cases, deeply moving.
Highly recommended.
First time I've read Salinger. The first story was shocking and disturbing - the kind of disturbing that seriously makes you wonder about reading more. A good start.
But after that, for the most part, the stories ... aren't very good. The writing is generally
Which is why it was so astonishing to find that the two final stories in the collection - De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period and (to an only slightly lesser extent) Teddy - are absolute gems. They're funny, they're fascinating, the writing is really interesting, and they both really invite careful study. Had the rest of the stories been anywhere near to this level, I'd have rated the collection much higher.
A perplexing mix.
Still a very good collection but Salinger, despite his great skill, isn't a Raymond Carver when it comes to the short story.