Salinger: A Biography

by Paul Alexander

Book Overview

In researching Salinger: A Biography, journalist and biographer Paul Alexander conducted over forty interviews with major literary figures including George Plimpton, Gay Talese, Ian Hamilton, Harold... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312673345
• ISBN13: 9780312673345
• Release Date: November 2010
• Publisher: Renaissance Books
• Length: 351 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

holden died when jds did

the revelations and historic detail made my head spin...i will re-read 9 stories again. this is the best writing on the best writing ever. jds at D-day thru the battle of the bulge..he was a war hero in a Hemmingway style. reading this book is exciting.

A well-written biography about a strange author

Everyone who has read "Catcher in the Rye" must read this biography. You don't know J.D. Salinger without reading this marvellous book.

Who is J.D. Salinger?

This book provides information about the life of J.D. Salinger that I have not seen in print elsewhere. It gives those of us not in the know the idea of what one of our favorite writers has been doing all these years. It of course does not tell us who Salinger really is, and what is the secret if there is one of his great literary ability and popularity. As a longtime and repeated reader of Salinger and as a person who actually met and spoke to him once I do not believe I have much real understanding of what to me is the key question i.e. How is it that a person who wrote such great literature seems in his everyday life so ornery and petty? How is it that a person who champions ' higher ideals' seems so unkind in relation to all the people he has known? Is it the early fame that drove him to this? Or is it the fact that as often is the case the person of genius simply is not such a wonderful human being? What I see is that the kind of selfish life Salinger has lived ( the life of every artist in a certain way) raises the question of whether the hidden treasure trove of Literature he has been accumulating is an esoteric bore or more of that remarkable revelatory stuff that he gave us in " The Catcher and the Rye" " Nine Stories" and to a degree in "Raise High the Roof Carpenter " "Seymour an Introduction" "Franny and Zooey?" One other point. Salinger certainly deserves a better a deeper a more interesting work than this piece of biographical journalism. He could surprise us all by doing it himself and giving us a spiritual autobiography of depth and beauty. I for one doubt that he will do this . I think he made a critical tactical mistake in his ' spiritual search' in not having at least tried at some point to seriously relate to the vast and intricate and infinitely deep and beautiful Jewish spiritual tradition . But this is something he has always run away from.

Life From "The Catcher in the Rye."

This book on Salinger's life is an excellent read. You may not find out everything you want to know about Salinger in this biography, however, that is not the point...Though Salinger had disdain for publishers, he put in years of work for his first novel. It takes time to write quality work.Webbed in this biography is how Salinger not only made money from his now classic novel, but how he used his authorship of that book as a pick up line to get female companionship...From this biography, it seems Salinger has lost his way. If that is true, why does Alexander reveal the work habits of Salinger who rose at five or six in the morning and put in, "fifteen or sixteen hours a day at his typewriter (p. 208)?" Is it because Salinger has something to be revealed that is bigger than "Catcher in the Rye" yet to be published? Hope so, though be it posthumously.

Finally, a critical look at Salinger.

Paul Alexander doesn't so much offer up anything new (seemingly, a major complaint of some of the other reviewers here) but he does offer up some rather startling, critical, and very sensible and very plausible interpretations of Salinger that very likely present the former writer (for that is what Salinger is, a former writer) as a not-too appealing character. Perhaps we shouldn't care about Salinger's character. But Salinger has brought this on himself. When you think, for example, of how Woody Allen was villified (and perhaps rightly so) for having relations with a 17-year-old (who was also the adopted daughter of his girlfriend), it makes one wonder why people are so inclined to forgive Salinger's relationship with the teenaged Joyce Maynard. No one contests the excellence of Salinger's slight work (a few novellas, one very brief novel, and nine stories), but Alexander and others have tried for years to get at the meaning of these stories. As a writer -- one who wishes to COMMUNICATE -- it's mind-boggling and disappointing that Salinger refuses to help the very people who've supported his career for so many years. I still admire Salinger's work, but his refusal to speak to his supporters and defenders is downright arrogant. I've read much of the academic interpretation, much of it from the angle of religion, particularly Zen. But here, for the first time, really, has anyone looked at Salinger's work as therapy, almost confessional (albeit, unintended by Salinger). His obsession with children, in particular, does disturb (particularly in this day and age) and is, quite frankly, reminiscent of Lewis Carroll. I imagine many fans of Salinger would like to dismiss this book because it presents the author in an amber light. I think it's deserving. Perhaps Salinger's intent eluded even Salinger himself. And since he won't open his mouth, since he continually refuses to engage and participate in a conversation that HE started, then it leaves his work up for scrutiny, and thus a puzzle. Or maybe just the ramblings of a troubled soul, which Salinger almost certainly is. From a psychological point of view, one must ask, What is Salinger hiding? What is he hiding from? And why all the children?