J.D. Salinger wasn't very prolific; however, I would count him as among the best American authors ever. Certainly one of the top five. That said, I hadn't read any of the works that are collected in "Nine Stories" previously. I got an older copy from my mother who was thinning out her library. It wasn't too long before I picked it up and started turning pages.
The stories range dramatically from outright haunting to sweet. The first and last stories were among the haunting ones - "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "Teddy." Both have enormous tragedies as centerpieces to the stories. The first will linger in mind for a long time.
One of the stories was circled by a previous owner on the cover of the book. I can't help but wonder why. There's also a random address on the inside cover. Anything this old, though, has a tale of its own. Am curious but resigned to never knowing.
I don't want to dissect individual stories here or this blog would become cumbersome. It was a shorter book, but nine is quite a few stories. My copy had originally been sold for only seventy-five cents. Not sure what my mother had gotten it for, but I imagine she had bought it second-hand somewhere. Great value for a great book.
One brief exchange I found particularly touching was from "Down at the Dinghy" where a young boy kept wanting to run away. His mother approaches him about it and asks him why. He doesn't or won't provide a direct answer but, later, during the conversation, breaks out into tears. He says that one of the other women...not sure if it was a friend or a family member of the mother....Salinger may have even noted that and I just missed it...but that she had said that the boy's dad was nothing but a worthless kike or something of that nature.
The mother asks the boy if he knows what a kike is. He nods and starts explaining a kite. Melted my heart...anyway, she says that they should go get his dad so that they can go on a boat ride together.
In each of the stories included in this collection, I was struck by Salinger's skill at writing dialogue. People don't quite listen to one another when they're talking and author's often struggle with that, turning it into verbal ping-pong rather than a conversation. They interrupt each other, change the subject, or completely miss what the other person said. His ability to write conversations realistically gives the stories a profound life that they wouldn't otherwise have. Seriously, I could enjoy just reading about a group of people having dinner and talking somewhere when it is delivered that adroitly.
I'm a little saddened by having finished this book as it is the last major published work by Salinger that I had not read. That said, it has been a really long time since I read his two novels and I may revisit one or both of them soon. I highly recommend "Nine Stories" and just caution the reader to approach it prepared to be moved. This is a thoroughly stunning collection.