Nine Stories

The opening short in this collection, 'A Perfect Day for Bananafish,' follows a rather important day in the life of Seymour Glass and his wife, Muriel. Proof that a short story can quickly draw its readers in, this famous tale of a tortured soul is hauntingly beautiful and will leave you wishing it were longer. The most well-known in the collection, 'Bananafish' is an example of J.D. Salinger's extraordinary ability to truly bring his characters to life, giving them an untouchable depth in a remarkably small number of pages. 'Teddy" is the final installment of the stories. Along with 'Bananafish,' it fastens together this compilation perfectly. This is the tale of 10-year-old Theodore Mc Ardle, on board an ocean-liner heading home from a European trip, accompanied by his family. Teddy is an enlightened, yet alienated child-genius who may be Salinger's most evolved character. The bulk of this story is a dialogue that Teddy has with a young man on the ship about eastern religion and philosophy. Each of the stories between the first and the last is poignant and powerful, every one serving as the epitome of the short story. 'For Esme-With Love and Squalor,' 'The Laughing Man,' and the cleverly satisfying 'Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes,' are among the renowned collection. 'Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut,' another highly revered short, was adapted into a 1949 movie, much to the author's horror. Never again did he authorize his work for screen adaptation. Salinger's characters range from heroes to hypocrites, and all contain within them a fully developed personality, history and scope of emotions. These are characters you can hear as clearly as though they were standing next to you, characters you can see as vividly as though they were standing in front of you. Published and released in 1953, Salinger's short stories are all easily able to stand alone, but were thankfully brought together in this amazing and touching literary masterpiece.