Thursday, January 28, 2010

J. D. Salinger

J. D. Salinger died today at 91. I've read and enjoyed all his books and short stories. They came along at the right time for me. We all know about Catcher in the Rye, but he wrote many short stories as well. This quote from one of them is meaningful to me:

The central theme of Salinger's work is stated explicitly in one of his best short stories, "For Esmé – with Love and Squalor." Salinger quotes a passage from Dostoevski: "Fathers and teachers, I ponder 'What is Hell?' I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love."

4 comments:

mrs.missalaineus said...

seymour glass


xxalainaxx

Oxy said...

His books should be compulsive reading for teenagers! Mind you, in the UK, getting a kid to read is akin to extracting hen's teeth. "A book?? Whassat??"

SteveA said...

I love that phrase - so true!

Kyle Leach said...

It is funny Joy how much his work is still terribly relevant, so much so, that parents are still fighting to restrict or ban his work in some schools.