Franny and Zooey

I like J.D. Salinger but not for the book that made him famous, Catcher in the Rye. I just didn’t get it. But Franny and Zooey, well, that was a different story. I read it when I was a sophomore in high school, 1961. I liked the elegant style. The brevity of the work. The simplicity of the language. The complexity of the ideas. I wanted to know these people, who were smart and in college and lived in NY city.

The cover above is nothing like the cover of my copy, first of all mine is a hardcover and secondly, it’s dog-eared and well worn. The priest who introduced me to this wonderful work was also responsible for helping me believe I could write. I wrote an essay for freshman English. He liked it. Asked me to read it to the class. They laughed. They enjoyed it. I was hooked. He put me on the school paper.

But back to the book and the intelligence of the characters. They talked about complex things and it made me want to know complex things, and think ideas such as the Jesus prayer and what it meant if you said it everyday for so long that it became second nature. and I’m sure that’s where I first got the idea that college might be a place I wanted to go. And I did, eventually. And if you’ve never read it, now is as good a time as any to introduce yourself to the book. It’s an unforgettable book.