Franny and Zooey

Rating:
Summary: SALINGER IS A GENIUS...
Review: Salinger takes the timeless topic of humanities attempt to find a purpose in life and carries it to a new level through the dialouge of two unforgettable characters, Franny and Zooey. Funny, intelligent and philosophical. I wish he would have continued for another two hundred pages.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT BOOK
Review: Due to the suicide of Seymour Glass, Franny's religious beliefs are fluctuating. Franny was never able to accept religion before her brother's suicide. However, now that she is trying to "find herself," she is caught up in the vast world of religion. Her obvious relationship with religion is illustrated through the book she continues to carry around. She tries to fall back on it, by praying incessantly. However, through her subconscious thoughts she is depicted as never being able to accept religion. Though people continue to try to offer Franny guidance, there remains a reason for her searching and nervous breakdown. Franny's searching is an obvious result of her brother's suicide. Since the tragic event, she is constantly seeking guidance, but cannot accept it. The one religious element she holds onto is her book, "The Way of the Pilgrim." It gives her reason to believe that she will get over the suicide. The peasant looking for prayer without ceasing found his way, found his path in life through religion. She sees the novel's sequel as her sequel, that if she prays incessantly, she could get over her troubles. Jesus Christ is the person she falls back on. She tells herself that she does not directly believe in Jesus, "But the thing is, the marvelous thing is, when you first start doing it, you don't even have to have faith in what you're doing. I mean even if you're terribly embarrassed about the whole thing, it's perfectly all right." In this case, she uses herself as an example, she cannot say to herself she fully believes that praying incessantly will make her get over her problems. However, she feels she needs some sort of help. By using this "Jesus prayer" she tries to escape the superficiality and corruptness of life that she feels, now that Seymour died and life has deceived her. Deep within, she knows she is doomed; she knows inside that no religion can help solve her psychological problems. Since the death of Seymour, her angers continuously frustrate her. She is constantly contradicting Lane, her boyfriend. With everything she contradicts him about, she feels inside she is getting her frustrations out. When in fact, she is taking it out on the wrong people. Her relationship to her religion subconsciously led to her nervous breakdown. She won't accept guidance or help because she cannot take the criticism. When Zooey is telling her that praying incessantly will not work, she knows she can't take it, so she acts as if she didn't hear him. At home, she separates herself from the family. She barely talks to them, and will not take her mom's guidance. "I tried-not a half hour ago-to get her to take a nice cup of chicken broth." Through her mother's continuous offering of chicken soup and psychoanalysis, her mother is trying to open up, to help guide Franny through her problems. However, Franny is relentless to accept guidance, from which she will get criticism. This criticism that she worries about will show her that life has once again deceived her. When Seymour died, it made Franny change her view of religion. Originally, her family was split religions, so her parents taught all the kids all religions. "This is, we wanted you both to know who and what Jesus and Gautama and Lao-tse and Shankaracharya and Hui-neng and Sri Ramakrishna, etc..." She needed something to fallback on. She saw a way to be part of a religion, which supposedly works. Starting off, she would not even have to have faith in what she was doing. It fit a description of a religion perfect for her. However, the constant doubt remained in her mind that this was too easy to solve her problems. Religion is much vaster and more complicated then just this. However, consciously she could not acknowledge or accept it. When she was finally able to see it, she had a nervous breakdown. Religion in the perspective of Franny Glass was way too simple. By simply repeating " 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me,' " she felt she could get rid of her problems, as the peasant and other people did in "The Way of the Pilgrim." However, with an inability to take criticism as Franny had, she could never accept there is more than just that to religion.

Rating:
Summary: a 'don;t die until you've read it' book
Review: Franny was feeling, or emotion if you will, and Zooey was thought or logic. Salinger had them as brother and sister, destined to fight, squabble, and conflict--but none the less more complete togethor.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but never catch up to Catcher
Review: When I was reading it I felt nothing. It was just an average book- good writing, but no meaning. As I go over it I reaize all the symbolism, the chicken soup, the snowman paper-weight, and foremost religion.Due to the suicide of Seymour Glass, Franny's religious beliefs are fluctuating. Franny was never able to accept religion before her uncle's suicide. However, now that she is trying to "find herself," she is caught up in the vast world of religion. Her obvious relationship with religion is illustrated through the book she continues to carry around. However, through her subconscious actions she is depicted as never being able to accept religion. Though people continue to try and give Franny guidance, there still remains the reason for both her searching and her nervous breakdown.

Rating:
Summary: A LINE TO INDICATE THE POSSIBILITY OF FRANNY'S PREGNANCY
Review: At the end of Franny, Lane assures her that he will later try to sneak up the back staircase to the room that he has reserved for her. Thus indicating that THEY ARE LOVERS. Whether or not she is pregnant still remains in question, but there is slight indications that she just may be! However on the other hand, her physical illness may she be a result of psychosomaticism, not a result of pregnancy. It's up to the reader to decipher, but at the same time TO ALL OF YOU WHO RULED OUT THE POSSIBILITY of Franny being pregnant, you are WRONG. Franny and Zooey was an interesting novel, an in depth anaylisis of the deepest part of mankind - -an exploration into the soul of humanity. However, hafta say as a sixteen year old, I enjoyed Catcher more! I could relate to its issues on a first-hand basis, whereas Franny and Zooey was a bit too philisophical and explored topics which I have not even begun to consider! Definitely a book for "grown ups" *laughs*, but perhaps as a teenager, it does not seemingly apply as much.

Rating:
Summary: Absofrikkin'lutly Amazing
Review: My mother recomended this book to me during a time where I really needed some sort of guidance. I needed someone to relate to. Franny was that person. I cannot even explain how much I adore this book, the characters, and what I learned from it. Now, anytime I feel out of place or unhappy I pick up Franny and Zooey and somehow things are put into perspective.

Rating:
Summary: Salinger gives us a seed
Review: I believe that Salinger has offered us a follow-up. In high school we had "Catcher", and now, in college, and not yet able to let go of Holden's hand, Franny and Zooey offers the next steps to surviving in a phony world. As mentioned in the book, this is a story about love much more than religion or mysticism. I feel Salinger brings up different sects to show us that everyone is capable of finding and spreading the guidance we all need to more beautifully live together.

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Summary: The insight into a spirtual mind.
Review: I have just finished reading Franny and Zooey, and it( like A Catcher In The Rye ) amazed me. Salinger's style and use of language has again captured me into the heart of this book. I found this book not as good as A Catcher In The Rye, but right up there underneath it. Franny's spirtual struggle, and Zooey's countinued talks made this a great book, that I reccomend for anyone to read.

Rating:
Summary: Lovely
Review: Yes, quite a lovely story, as all of Salinger's works are. I just wanted to briefly mention this: I read, just days after reading Franny and Zooey for the first time, "The Way of the Pilgrim" and "The Pilgrim Continues the Way," the two volumes of the one book that the girl reads. Though I am not theistic, I found that book particularly wonderful, written in a thoughtful, modest fashion by an anonymous russian pilgrim about a hundred years ago. I greatly recommend "The Way of the Pilgrim" for those true fans of Franny and Zooey.

Rating:
Summary: Intense insight can be painful for the very young.
Review: Franny and Zooey were too tender to obsessively focus on intellectual/spiritual realities as they did. My feeling as I read with great interest (on several occasions) the intelligent and honest exchange was sadness that they were so obviously moving relentlessly to a tragic outcome.