Friday Flashback: Rec. #131: Franny and Zooey

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: You can keep your ninth grade required Salinger reading. I'll take the Glass family stories over The Catcher in the Rye any day, and the short story/novella combo of Franny and Zooey is the best. The two youngest Glass children, both in their twenties, are going through mild psychological crises that they are taking very seriously. Like Holden Caulfield, the siblings see a phony everywhere they look. Franny and Zooey are more articulate about it, though.

Comparable to: Wes Anderson pretty explicitly modeled the Tenenbaums on the Glass family, so it might be a nice touch to listen to the The Royal Tenenbaums soundtrack as you read this book.

Representative quote: "Franny was among the first of the girls to get off the train, from a car at the far, northern end of the platform. Lane spotted her immediately, and despite whatever it was he was trying to do with his face, his arm that shot up into the air was the whole truth."

You might not like it if: Reading Salinger again feels like high school to you.

How to get it: With Salinger's cult status, and such a finite amount of his writing available, you shouldn't have trouble finding this book. If you've read his other Glass family stories (particularly "A Perfect Day for Bananafish"), you'll have a fuller picture of the background here, but it's not necessary.



[Originally posted 5/22/11.]