SALINGER PASSES, BUT HOLDEN STILL SPEAKS
Students Remember Literature Legend
MERVE FEJZULA, NEWS EDITOR
Issue date: 2/2/10 Section: Life & Leisure
I could begin this in so many different ways, but no matter how I start nothing seems to fit. On Friday, January 27, J.D. Salinger passed away. All the effusive and never-ending tributes and obituaries have put it so much better than I could. I'm at a loss for words, but then Mr. Salinger would be the first to point out (and he would only narrowly beat me to it) how untrue this is - after all, what you see is words, words, words before you.
Of course it is The Catcher in the Rye that people most immediately associate with the writer, second only to his seclusion. It is always astonishing to find out someone you think has never read anything confesses how much she or he loves the main character Holden. The Onion labeled their piece about Salinger's death "Bunch of Phonies Mourn J.D. Salinger." It's very funny, but I've often wondered about it myself - how many phonies have read Catcher? And yet, everyone always seems to feel as if Salinger had written the book especially for them, as if Holden was a better, funnier incarnation of themselves.
When I think of Salinger, though, my mind goes to Nine Stories. I still remember taking the book home and being very impressed with myself. It sat on my shelves for months - not because I didn't want to read it, but because I didn't want to return it to the library. I wanted the experience of reading it to last as long as possible.
There was something else too. I was so moved by each story that it took me a while to recover from one before I could begin the other. I borrowed that same copy from the library over the weekend and found myself flipping through the pages. I started to reread some passages, but I could not continue. Like so many of Salinger's protagonists, I did not want to ruin that first pure experience of reading the stories. I wanted to remember feeling about them as I always had.
Which is another thing that I have always wondered about Salinger - the pull he has/had on me. As a high school freshman I read Catcher and like everyone else in the class, I thought that Mr. Salinger had written Holden just for me and no one else; although most of the girls were probably in love with him. It is also a fond reading memory; Salinger was my first right of passage in the tricky territory of symbolism.
Of course it is The Catcher in the Rye that people most immediately associate with the writer, second only to his seclusion. It is always astonishing to find out someone you think has never read anything confesses how much she or he loves the main character Holden. The Onion labeled their piece about Salinger's death "Bunch of Phonies Mourn J.D. Salinger." It's very funny, but I've often wondered about it myself - how many phonies have read Catcher? And yet, everyone always seems to feel as if Salinger had written the book especially for them, as if Holden was a better, funnier incarnation of themselves.
When I think of Salinger, though, my mind goes to Nine Stories. I still remember taking the book home and being very impressed with myself. It sat on my shelves for months - not because I didn't want to read it, but because I didn't want to return it to the library. I wanted the experience of reading it to last as long as possible.
There was something else too. I was so moved by each story that it took me a while to recover from one before I could begin the other. I borrowed that same copy from the library over the weekend and found myself flipping through the pages. I started to reread some passages, but I could not continue. Like so many of Salinger's protagonists, I did not want to ruin that first pure experience of reading the stories. I wanted to remember feeling about them as I always had.
Which is another thing that I have always wondered about Salinger - the pull he has/had on me. As a high school freshman I read Catcher and like everyone else in the class, I thought that Mr. Salinger had written Holden just for me and no one else; although most of the girls were probably in love with him. It is also a fond reading memory; Salinger was my first right of passage in the tricky territory of symbolism.
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