Franny and Zooey Author:J. D. Salinger The disparate elements of intellectualism and religiosity coalesce gracefully in this exploration of modern American culture, its incongruities and possibilities.
J. D. Salinger was an American author who is best known for his novel CATHER IN THE RYE. I read Catcher several years ago and remember liking it but had never read anything else by him. Salinger wrote a number of short stories but after publishing Catcher he became reclusive. He is also a character in the novel SHOELESS JOE by W.P. Kinsella which is the basis for the movie Field of Dreams. I read and enjoyed that novel a few years ago and it did portray Salinger as very reclusive but how accurate this was I'm not sure.
Franny and Zooey is comprised of two stories that were originally published in the New Yorker in 1955 and 1957: Franny tells the story of Franny Glass, Zooey's sister, a college student. The story takes place in an unnamed college town during Franny's weekend visit to her boyfriend Lane. Disenchanted with the selfishness and inauthenticity she perceives all around her, she aims to escape it through spiritual means. Zooey is set shortly after the events of Franny in the Glass family apartment in New York City's Upper East Side. While actor Zooey's younger sister Franny suffers a spiritual and existential breakdown in their parents' Manhattan living room, leaving their mother Bessie deeply concerned, Zooey comes to Franny's aid, offering what he thinks is brotherly love, understanding, and words of sage advice.
Salinger delved into various religions during his life. He practiced Zen Buddhism and later became an advocate of Hinduism. This is apparent from the novel that provides insights on various religions including Christianity. Salinger's prose was very specific and wordy in describing the surroundings and setting of the two stories. He goes into much detail in describing the New York apartment: "There was a Steinway grand piano (invariably kept open), three radios, a twenty-one-inch-screen television set, four table-model phonographs, cigarette and magazine tables galore, a ping pong table, . . . a fish tank, a love seat, . . . . " and on and on. Franny's mental breakdown in the novel reminded me somewhat of some of Shirley Jackson's early novels such as HANGSAMAN that tells of a young woman's psychosis at college.
I can see why this novel has been included on several must-read lists including the "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die." The writing is very descriptive but it tended to go overboard. I didn't really identify with the characters and thought they were mostly very pretentious and overbearing. Overall, I would only mildly recommend this and I was mostly underwhelmed by the story.
The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature writes:
Volume containing two interrelated stories by J.D. Salinger, published in book form in 1961. The stories, originally published in The New Yorker magazine, concern Franny and Zooey Glass, two members of the family that was the subject of most of Salinger's short fiction. Franny is an intellectually precocious late adolescent who tries to attain spiritual purification by obsessively reiterating the "Jesus prayer" as an antidote to the perceived superficiality and corruptness of life. She subsequently suffers a nervous breakdown. In the second story, her next older brother, Zooey, attempts to heal Franny by pointing out that her constant repetition of the "Jesus prayer" is as self-involved and egotistical as the egotism against which she rails.
I read Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters and Seymour last year, and I knew I had to read Franny and Zooey. I LOVE the Glass family, and this book definitely did not disappoint my high expectations. The way J.D. Salinger is able to make his characters feel real and organic is amazing; I love the stream of consciousness narrative and the character driven "plot". I've never seen anyone else write like this. In fact, it makes me want to write. I'm completely inspired and completely in love; yes, Franny and Zooey is going on my favorites list.
In the dedication, Salinger urged his editor, William Shawn of The New Yorker, to accept "this pretty skimpy-looking book." Salinger wasn't kidding. It's no Catcher in the Rye, but it reads fast.
