Franny and Zooey-- a totally different J. D. Salinger

I started reading Franny and Zooey on Sunday because I thought it was short enough to read in the few days that I have left before school starts. I LOVE J.D. Salinger... I've read The Catcher in the Rye about 10 times... not exaggerating! I used to read it every year over Christmas break. That's a love or hate book. Some people just do not like that style of writing, and therefore dismiss it. I, however, love it and wish to build Salinger a shrine.... ok... that's a bit much.

Franny and Zooey is A LOT different. I still really like it, but it is not anything like Catcher in the Rye. This book is really funny at times. I was reading at Starbucks today, for example, and I literally laughed out loud and had to put my hand over my mouth. Yes... people looked at me. I don't care. I was wearing a t-shirt that said I survived the zombie uprising... it's not like they were going to take me seriously anyway, right? :)

I'm not finished yet, I've got about 70 pages to go-- planning on cranking those out tomorrow. But it's super good. It's a dark humor that I really like. I would compare it to Kurt Vonnegut who is friggin' hysterical!

I love how when he writes he almost sounds like he's praising people until you really listen to what he's saying. On the first page of the book he's talking about a bunch of college guys standing around and says that they were "talking in voices that, almost without exception, sounded collegiately dogmatic, as though each young man, in his strident, conversational turn, was clearing up, once and for all, some highly controversial issue, one that the outside, non-matriculating world had been bungling, provocatively or not, for centuries." I only wish that I could insult people with such elegance! :)

One of my favorite lines so far in the book is when the narrator is talking about the family-- they had zillions of kids, all who were super smart and appeared on some radio show. Salinger writes, "Public response to the children was often hot and never tepid. In general, listeners were divided into two, curiously restive camps; those who held that the Glasses were a bunch of insufferably 'superior' bastards that should have been drowned at birth, and those who held that they were bona-fide underage wits and savants, of an uncommon, if unenviable, order."
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!

A great read! The first section is a bit slow, but it picks up after a while! Can't wait to finish it.

Wow... people buy this crap?

Ok... I hope not to offend here... but wow... I can't believe people pay hard earned money on some of the crap that is out there in the world! 


I was tutoring someone this summer in reading, and so I allowed her to pick out a book that she wanted to read, and we would read it together... She chose Don't Die, My Love by Lurlene McDaniel.


So... to give you some idea-- here are a list of other books written by Mrs. McDaniel:
When Happily Ever After Ends
Baby Alicia is Dying
The Girl Death Left Behind
Letting Go of Lisa
Till Death Do Us Part
Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever
Too Young to Die
Time to Let Go


... and the list goes on and on... over 60 books published in the last 15-ish years. And they are almost exclusively about teenagers dealing with death. I don't advocate the use of Wikipedia for actual research... but this is a blog for Pete's sake... here is what the wikipedia article says about her books, "Her characters have grappled with cancer, diabetes, organ failure, and the deaths of loved ones through disease or suicide." Whew... and you guys criticized Bronte for being depressing!


Wow... I read it, that was an accomplishment. And I have to admit, I got a little choked up at the end when the boy died. But oh man! Talk about terrible dialogue, MASSIVELY predictable plot line, and so much cheesy love crap I almost couldn't stand it. I'm pretty sure I threw up in my mouth about a dozen times! "Oh, Luke! I love you so much and you're the star quarterback for our high school. You can't get sick! Don't leave me!"--  ok... so I made that quote up, but it's really bad!


Now, having been all critical and English-y about it all-- it sells like frozen ice-pops in a heat-wave! This woman is probably loaded and has a million houses all over the world. So, more power to her, but let me tell you, that is 3 hours of my life I'll never get back!

Sons and Lovers-- the end

So... all in all a good book. I can't say it's one of my favorites, but I did enjoy the realistic nature of the characters. I hated Paul for all of his "my mommy is the only woman in my life" and for taking women for granted in general. But I have to say that I surprising liked the relationship that he had with a very unlikely friend. At first I thought it was way too unrealistic that they would be friends, but the more I thought about it, the more it actually made sense.
D.H. Lawrence is a very talented writer and had a great way of phrasing things amazingly well. At one point, about midway through the book, he's describing the night sky and says, "Orion was wheeling up over the wood, his dog twinkling after him, half smothered. For the rest, the world was full of darkness, and silent, save for the breathing of cattle in their stalls." I really got a great mental picture of this English countryside with cows and the sky so amazingly bright above it. I just love those lines.
I would suggest it as a read, most definitely. Well worth the 400+ pages!