Salinger: A Biography

Rating:
Summary: There must be something wrong with me...
Review: I loved this book. I thought it was interesting and well-informed, and presented Salinger from every possible angle. I thought this was a great biography and I'm surprised at the bad reviews it has gotten. One man's treasure... I highly recommend it to any fan of Salinger's work.

Rating:
Summary: Raise High the Roof Beams, Salinger
Review: I suspect that half the people who declare that this biography is no good haven't even read it and are only too freak about Salinger that they think they connect with him and Holden in some personnal way. Salinger's by far my favorite author and I truly respect his view of the writing process and his will to be left alone, but I don't consider that people who want to write about him are phonies. I totally enjoyed this biography, which is honnest and gives a good portrait of Salinger's writing evolution and life. Even though I don't agree with all of the biographer's opinions, I think that his book deserves to be read, because in writing and researching about him, he in his own way paid tribute to Salinger, a strange and fascinating author.

Rating:
Summary: The arch-phony
Review: I'm not sure I understand why this book is rated as low as it is. As a fan of Salinger, I have read most of the newspaper articles regarding various citings and encounters over the years but there was never a single volume that put it all together. I found this book to be a smooth, easy read packed with information that I had not previously been exposed to. I would recommend it highly to anyone with an interest in Salinger and his work.

Rating:
Summary: So bad it should never have been published
Review: I'm really very surprised that anyone liked this book at all. How could anyone who likes Salinger's writing stand reading Alexander's terrible prose? It is really painful, and that's just the starting point. As others on this page have mentioned, the author has little or no understanding of Salinger's work (the example of his misunderstanding the story "Teddy" is a particularly good example, but the book is strewn with them). Worse, the author isn't just ignorant but actually hostile to Salinger. It's hard to understand why someone would take the time to write a book about someone he clearly dislikes. If you must read this book out of curiousity, get it at the library. I felt really ripped off after buying this book, and wished I had not given a nickle to this creepy author. And if you are NOT familiar with Salinger, by all means do not read this book. Read Salinger. Your own speculation about the guy based on his fiction will make more sense that this so-called biography.

Rating:
Summary: The Mystery Of J.D. Salinger
Review: Many of those who have commented on this work find author Paul Alexander to be hostile to his subject. That's not my read of it; to me, he seems more to be puzzled and saddened by the way Salinger has chosen to live his life. It could be argued that Alexander doesn't really understand Salinger; but can anyone really claim otherwise?

With Salinger, his family and past associates unwilling to cooperate on any kind of biography, Alexander has had to make do with the rather skimpy public record the world's most famous recluse has left behind. He seems to have put together as full a life story as possible, given these limitations. The perception of hostility may come from the fact that Alexander quotes extensively from the reaction of critics to Salinger's work--and sadly, for those who love it (including this reviewer)--the majority of the critics were negative about it. And Salinger's hostility to most of those in the publishing world is well-documented.

Perhaps Alexander's most intriguing contention is that Salinger, for all his public protestations of a desire to be left alone, actually wants the attention he generates. It's kind of a cat-and-mouse game with the public designed to maintain interest in his works.

If you're interested in learning as much detail as you can about Salinger's childhood, education, romances, buisiness dealings, and the likes, this is probably the best book we'll have for some time.

Rating:
Summary: The arch-phony
Review: Paul Alexander has accomplished a stunning feat of embodying the antithesis to Holden's ideals. The protagonist of _Salinger: A Biography_ - Paul Alexander himself - shows masterfully that not only can a fictional character exist who hates all phonies, but that the perfect journalistic phony can also strike back with a story about the creator of the phonies-hater. Quite fittingly,in its closing lines the "biography" introduces its phony neologism: "acturally" [sic].

Rating:
Summary: Now we know why Salinger dodges and cringes ...
Review: Paul Alexander pulls together what seems an accurate timeline of Salinger's life. Salinger is a legendary recluse and seriously uptight about leaking any personal information. A biography without his cooperation is inherently non-conclusive and hardly in-depth.

****A basic profile, however, still provides some interest. Alexander documents that Salinger was not a good student in his youth. His instructors evaluate him as having potential but no genius I.Q. or motivation. His ambition to write doesn't surface until he is almost in college.

****In World War II, Salinger serves in the Army, participating in D-Day and marching into Paris after Allied liberation. This is a particularly significant time for Salinger psychologically and in his writing. It's at this time that he develops "Catcher in the Rye". One can see where Holden's exhaustion, confusion, and melancholy come from. In large part, it's the war-weary Salinger channeled through.

****If Salinger is an autobiographical writer and we consider hints given in the Glass family chronicles like "Seymour: An Intro", then Salinger is a professor-figure who wants to cross the street whenever inquisitive, eager students approach. He believes there are no truly interesting questions anyone can ask him -- at least not so imperative as to justify disturbing his reclusivity.

****To be fair, answering all the fans (and fanatics) would be an overwhelming endeavor -- probably much like the circus that surrounds J.K. Rowling on book tours. Salinger is, in a sense, a lone Beatle. There's no confidante to understand what his celebrity is like.

****I'm guessing Salinger was himself a fan of the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. It would be rather appropriate since its creator, Bill Waterson, also retreated from the public despite phenomenal success. And as much as Salinger refuses to publish anymore, you'd like to imagine that he has access to the internet and that he's given some thought (if not contributed) to the anonymous "instant publication" happening on the world wide web.

Rating:
Summary: A Tabloid Expose in Book Form (A True Shame)
Review: Paul Alexander, the author of this biography, may have a genuine admiration for J.D. Salinger, but he clearly has no true understanding of the man. This biographer's approach to Salinger's life more closely resembles a tabloid publication's expose of a pedophile priest. Aside from the differences that any group of people can have over the interpretation of any story, it seems apparent that Alexander has no clear understanding of the classic literature that Salinger loved. He lists the authors that Salinger admired, yet doesn't seem to have an awareness of the works and how they're integrated into many of Salinger's stories. The most horrifying revelation of this biography, for me, is the realization that many people especially this biographer have misinterpreted the story "Teddy." Salinger chooses his words and titles painstakingly carefully for a reason. Alexander's conclusions (as well as the public's), that Teddy kills his sister in the story, shows either his lack of awareness of what's going on or maybe he never read the story. Eventhough, the story "Teddy" was extremely successful, Salinger's disappointment to the public's reaction of the story is apparent in his story character's and alter ego, Buddy Glass', comments in "Seymour an Introduction," " ... few years ago, I published an exceptionally Haunting, Memorable, unpleasantly controversial, and thoroughly unsucessful short story about a 'gifted' little boy... " These comments alone shows Salinger's disappointment in the fact that "people just don't get it." Though, Salinger needs no defenders, I believe his fascination with young people (including and especially young women) manifests from a pure source. It is his awareness that people are most whole when they're young and not old. It is his awareness of the time in peoples lives before they accept the limits, lies, and illusions of huge institutions and the infuences of self motivated family members and friends. It is Salinger's awareness of a time when the joy of life exists in experiencing and not acquiring. This book has some interesting facts that many people may find engaging and interesting. It is an easy enough book to read and enjoy. However, the best thing you can do if you truly want to know J.D. Salinger is to just read the books he wrote. And if you want more.. Read the books Salinger read... Rilke, Shelley, Fitzgerald, Keats, etc.....

Rating:
Summary: Who is J.D. Salinger?
Review: 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.