What's your favorite Salinger story?

[Anonymous No.9547921]

I like Catcher in The Rye the best, but A Perfect Day For Bananafish is also good, even though I don't understand it.

[Anonymous No.9548102]

>>9547921
Spoilers etc.
>Seymour Glass has a severe case of PTSD(as did Salinger)
>He's on vacation with his shallow and self-absorbed wife.
>she's on the phone with her mother who insists he needs a psychiatrist but she disagrees because she's a spiritually passive adult
>Jump to Seymour laying on the beach
>First thing he does when we see him is self-consciously put his hand on his robe. He does this multiple times, but it isn't insecurity about his body- he has no problem with taking off the robe to get in the water. It's a spiritual vulnerability, something that's always on his mind.
>Him and Sybil chat and it's a very Catcher in the Rye dynamic- an intergenerational miscommunication. it's also God-tier dialogue.
>We meet Seymour for the first time and he's surprisingly childish, innocent, and charismatic. He's just a big kid, but he can't hide how clever and genuinely intelligent he is. He's an adult but he's trying very hard not to be. This could be why he's alone on the beach away from his wife.
>Then there's a some of literally the best dialogue I've ever read making a bunch of implications about their characters that I'm not gonna get into
>Then Seymour talks about bananafish
>Bananafish are representative of humans. "Their habits are very peculiar".
>They like to swim into a hole that's full of bananas, and they looked like ordinary fish when they swim in but then they go crazy when they eat the bananas and eat so much they can't get out of the hole. Then, stuck in the hole, they get banana fever and die.
>The bananas are representative of objects of desire. Money, status, etc. Adult things.
>Seymour sees adults grow up and kill themselves, engorged on their own greed. His PTSD allowed him to see a loss of innocence but took away his ability to cope with it.
>They swim around, Seymour is playful. He kisses her foot but it's affectionate and not some pedo shit.
>They leave, he gets in the hotel elevator and a woman stares at his feet for a second
>He mentions it and she denies that she's looking at his feet
>He snaps on her for lying because he didn't care in the first place but now she's lying to him about it
>This is representative of Seymour floating between childlike innocence and Adult behavior. The woman lied to him over something he saw as harmless- because she thought it was detrimental to her social standing to do something odd, she has "banana fever" because she's traded honesty for status.
>Seymour goes to his room where his wife is laying in bed with her back to him as it always is metaphorically
>he gets his pistol, sits on the bed facing his wife, and shoots himself.
>He knew that he too had "banana fever", but his was spiritual. If you read Franny and Zooey, his younger siblings mention that people can be greedy for spiritual things: peace, humility, goodwill, same as money or whatever else. Seymour was greedy for innocence and killed himself because he could never get it back, he was stuck in a hole.

[Anonymous No.9548121]

>>9548102
Huh. Nice analysis. I actually thought he was a pedophile who killed himself because of the sadness of his condition and his inability to find love that satisfies him the first time I read it. Your explanation makes more sense.

[Anonymous No.9548373]

the laughing man and uncle wiggily in conneticuit are his best stories especially wiggily

[Anonymous No.9548407]

For Esmé—with Love and Squalor is my favorite.

[Anonymous No.9548480]

anyone read Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction?

[Anonymous No.9548498]

>>9548407
>HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO
>HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO
>LOVE AND KISSES CHALES
my fucking heart

[Anonymous No.9548519]

>>9548480
I did. Raise High was pretty good but Seymour was often excruciating

[Anonymous No.9548529]

>>9548102
Beautiful work, anon. What a great writer Salinger is

[Anonymous No.9548674]

>>9548480
yeah, i did when i was in high school. i remember enjoying it but ive really been meaning to reread it.

[Anonymous No.9549917]

>>9547921
I really enjoy Catcher in the Rye, whenever I talk to other people about it they tend to dislike it. I find myself being able to identify with alot of Holden's problems, yet I don't understand why they don't like it.

[Anonymous No.9549942]

>>9547921
Thanks for reminding me I picked up Nine Stories for 25 cents the other day, still need to read it

[Anonymous No.9550223]

>>9548121
That was a pretty superficial reading. You should know to give Salinger the benefit of the doubt.

[Anonymous No.9550245]

>>9549917
their high school angst and ignorance

[Anonymous No.9550419]

>>9549917
It is easy to reject Holden if you do not want to be honest that you share or once shared his childishness.