J.D. Salinger Undead Pool

[Paelos]

My school forced a lot of lit on me, including Catcher. I remember nothing of it. Hell, I probably faked my way through it. I did that with a lot of stuff they told me I had to do. I'd light the anything by the Bronte's on fire right now. The only books I've ever enjoyed were the ones I've read on my own, with one exception. I was forced to read 1984, and I loved every second of it.

[Sheepherder]

I liked most of my assigned work, but then I've had a number of teachers that truly appreciate good writing.

[caladein]

I'd light the anything by the Bronte's on fire right now.

Wuthering Heights is one of the few books I was assigned in school that, to this day, I actively dislike.  That's not to say I've enjoyed every other piece of 19th Century English Literature I've read, but Wuthering is the standout.

Thankfully, with novels I was mostly able to read what I wanted to, even if that meant that I didn't quite understand the last paragraph of Brave New World until I asked my (9th grade English) teacher later...

[Soln]

I didn't mind Catcher, and I liked his short stories a lot more than Catcher.  But it will be interesting to see what juvenilia pre-NewYorker that will start to appear and what texts of the so-called Glass Family saga emerge post-Catcher.  I thought neurosis aside Salinger went into isolation to write a cycle of the Glass family from his short stories that was to resemble Proust's In Search of Lost Time.  I expect there will be lots of nuggets to emerge.  Just like we will start to see more and more from David Foster Wallace (who was being treated for mental illness during his life).

Regarding his position in the English canon?  Well, I remember in David Lodge's The Art of Fiction the section on "Skaz" as technique is credited or most illustrated by Salinger (teenage slang).  Of course Dickens and Balzaq and Twain were there first, but Salinger I thought was given special credit for this.

For me personally, Salinger has really been most influential on the short story.  He helped form a kind of very American  style and approach to writing that for many years the New Yorker exemplified.  It's a parody, but the sort of story of "boy reads book, boy is lonely, boy kills himself and is then remembered by friends, or has a family member kills themselves" etc.  Death is usually somewhere in Salinger and it's the way he justifies authentic self-reflection.  Again, I'm generalizing. And I haven't read him in maybe 15+ years?

[pxib]

Since none have appeared so far, I'll second the hope for newly discovered Glass books. Franny and Zooey is my favorite of his novels, and I too feel he truly shined in short story. If somebody wants to make movies out of them, I recommend Wes Anderson... who has an appropriately twisted eye for mystical resonance.