Franny i Zooey (1961)

If you like his other Glass family stories, then you'll probably enjoy the two in this volume. I preferred the first story ("Franny") over the second, but the second picks up where the first leaves off, so the book is almost like a novel. ( )

I read Franny and Zooey in school; I think I was about 13 or 14, and it must have been on a reading list in English class; I am sure we didn't read it as a class or I would have understood it properly. As it was, I was totally seduced by it and wanted to be Franny.
Some 55 years later I am Zooey, or some aspects of him, particularly his cynicism, but what I'm not sure he realized (though I am sure Salinger did) was that he tended to be exactly what he despised. But maybe he did.
There is so much about the book left unsaid that it's almost annoying, but the description of the time and the caricatures of people were pretty much spot on. I think I would really like to know if Salinger himself was as affected as his characterizations.
This is no kind of review but I can't do better with it. I will say that I know why it's no longer on reading lists in high school - I can't imagine any of the teenagers I know being able to relate to it in any way. ( )

This was very popular w/ the literate oddballs when I was in high school. I still see Salinger's name pop up here on GoodReads amongst my younger friends so I reckon he's still popular. That's a bit odd to me b/c I so strongly associate him w/ a particular time. What was this about? A brother & sister living w/ their mom & the good-natured squabbling amongst them? No wonder I related - except for the good-natured part. ( )

There is no mistake, Franny and Zooey is a Salinger book - made up of two short stories, "Franny" and "Zooey" (the latter, however, uses the term short rather loosely). And the book does involve familiar Salinger ideas: Phonies and the rich, privileged kids who hate them. The stories focus on the younger siblings of the Glass family. Franny being the youngest and Zooey being the youngest male. While little detail is revealed about her familial life in the short story named after her, Franny appears in "Zooey" to shed some light on the details of her story. I'm not impressed. I don't even know how I got around to completing the book. Determination, I suppose. ( )

Franny: Of little interest except as a prologue to the following.

Zooey: As far as I'm concerned, after Seymour: An Introduction the second best thing Salinger wrote. ( )