Rating: 
Summary: Wise and Funny
Review: Franny and Zooey is a book is an examination of religious fanaticism and how that obscures the real worship of God, an interesting idea whose time never passes. Franny is a college age kid who thinks that a constant prayer is the only way to find God. Zooey is her older and wiseacre brother who has some thoughts on that topic. Their family structure is a precursor to the family in the ROYAL TENEBAUMS, if you've seen the movie. The book is sharp and funny and even insightful. It would make a good stage play as most of the book is dialogue and it takes place in just two settings. If you are reading it as a follow up to CATCHER IN THE RYE, you'll get a different experience here. It is more talky whereas CATCHER was more of an adventure. I enjoyed Franny and Zooey, but probably more so after I had finished reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: Shut up, Zooey!
Review: whoa...this book seriously annoyed the hell out of me. i could not get remotely interested in the whole point (franny and her way of the pilgrim crisis). and what's up with her condition??? i always assumed she is pregnant but since it is never revealed it is the source of endless frustration, really. big -HUGE- disappointment after catcher in the rye. i sometimes get sick of these characters' depressing views on life. but there was no paxil in the 40s and 50s i guess.
Rating:
Summary: Great book - horrible copy
Review: Don't buy the massmarket paperback .. very bad quality print and awful size/design. Get one of the better versions, or the hardcover.
Great book, deserves the best medium and presentation, not cheap paper and runny ink.
Rating:
Summary: Franny and Pooey
Review: I'll admit that i quite enjoyed the first half of the Franny section, mainly because of my devotion to Catcher, my favourite book of all time. And this is why its so hard for me to tell you all that F & Z is not a worthwhile project, even if you can disengage yourself from Catcher Comparison (but let's face it, we're all only human). If you're interested in religions, especially eastern meditation and that kind of thing, maybe you'd have more luck than i did. I just couldn't make myself like Zooey. The dialogue is so tedious, too. Salinger describes in pedantic detail each nuance in a conversation which doesn't have interesting content to start with. I wasn't a fan of the whole bath thing, either - an entire third of this book takes place in the bath, and a long portion of that time is Zooey reading a loooong boring letter. I didn't find it an interesting comment on life in the forties - i couldn't relate to it in any way, and the entire situation felt contrived and tedious. A good sign of not enjoying a book is when its only just over a hundred pages long, and it feels longer than reading Anna Karenina (which i quite enjoyed, btw - check that one out - its Tolstoy's other famous novel). For a hundred and twenty pages, remarkably little of importance happens in this story. Salinger seems to have had nothing to say, so to make up for it he decided he'd take as long as possible to not say it. I'm sorry, J.D - i was once your biggest fan...
Rating: 
Summary: why we cherish our lives so dearly
Review: For me, Holden Caulfield (Catcher in the Rye) is another whiney angsty guy, that, in the grunge-alternative-nineties, we'd all become well acquainted with. So for me, it wasn't insightful, it was obvious. Franny and Zooey is altogether fresher. Franny and Zooey, a much shorter book, much more to the point (than Catcher). It observes those little delicate moments in life that we think we're alone in, showing us why we cherish our lives so dearly. Firstly, this book, for me is like watching a favourite TV show, you can see it all very clearly, there's so much detail, it's a visual treat! Essentially about a confrontation between Franny and her brother Zooey. Both characters are filled with mystery and intrigue, but they begin to figure each other and themselves out. Funny, perceptive, thoughtful, this book makes me feel like i'm living my life, i'm a part of life. I always walk away from it enriched.
Rating:
Summary: No deal
Review: If you're looking for another /Catcher in the Rye/, you're not going to find it in this book. To its credit it is funny at times (at least if you can enjoy Zooey's mean-spiritedness and sarcasm). If it were a hundred pages shorter (i.e. cut out most of Zooey's inane babbling) it might even be a good book. Throughtout the whole book I kept asking myself, "To what end?!" I guess it was all to find out the "Fat Lady" is Jesus. At least when Franny realized that she reached the "primordial silence" (haha!). Though I can't see that anyone would like this for religious reasons, as it's always handled very stupidly. (If you want a good eastern religion book written by a westerner read Hesse's /Siddhartha/) I can see how /maybe/ disaffected girls who just figured out their boyfriends were idiots might be able to relate to this book--well, at least the first 50 pages. In my opinion, the only really interesting stuff in whole book is the quotes Zooey reads in his brothers' bedroom. Regardless, in the end it doesn't matter what I think about this book, so just read it anyway. "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me."
Rating:
Summary: worth a look
Review: Franny 20, Female is distraught about her life. Zooey 25, male is Franny's brother. And although Franny thinks she'll never make it through (what she thinks is a huge crisis), least of all through the help of her Bratty, know-it-all brother; the answers to all her problems have never quite been closer to her than they are now. This book, by the hugely talented Salinger will fill a spot in your heart whether you're the brother, or sister he's writing about. Althoug short, this book touches you unlike any other book can or has. The story is simple, and full of dialogue which, keeps you reading if if not interested. Its a slow rise to a great climactic ending which is absolutly destined to give you a rewarding feeling. At about 200 pages its a quick weekend read.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: This is a good book, allthough like with all of Salinger's books, it leaves me wanting to know more about the carachters, I wanted to continue reading when it ended.
Rating:
Summary: The Crown Jewel of Salinger's Work
Review: When they hear the name J.D. Salinger, most people immediately think of "The Catcher in the Rye," which is far and away his most-popular book. If you bother to read the rest of Salinger's output, you find that most of it deals with the Glass family to one degree or another. From "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" in "Nine Stories," to "Raise High The Roofbeam, Carpenter, and Seymour: an Introduction," the Glass family was the focus of Salinger's efforts. Salinger's best can be found in "Franny and Zooey." Sure, Franny is a histrionic drama-queen, and Zooey is a megalomaniacal, friendless jerk, who treats everyone around him as second-rate, but by the book's end, you understand how their childhoods (or lack thereof) have molded them this way. Franny has a sort of nervous breakdown, and she decides that reciting "The Jesus Prayer," as prescribed in a little book called "Journey of the Pilgrim," will eventually grant her peace. Her know-it-all brother, Zooey, lays into her, telling her that if she's going to pray "The Jesus Prayer," she needs to understand who Jesus was, and not picture Him as St. Francis of Assisi, somebody's grandmother, and their dead eldest brother, Seymour, rolled up into one. There are lots of philosophies and religious doctrines batted around, but it all boils down to a difficult brother caring for his difficult sister. I've read this book ten times, at least, and the most satisfying have been when I read all the Zooey lines aloud. (Yes, this must confuse the hell out of my neighbors, but the dialogue is so strong and rich, that it cries out to be heard and spoken, not just read silently.) Try "Franny and Zooey." If you can forgive the two title characters, you'll find a rich and rewarding read.
Rating:
Summary: The Crown Jewel of Salinger's Work
Review: When they hear the name J.D. Salinger, most people immediately think of "The Catcher in the Rye," which is far and away his most-popular book. If you bother to read the rest of Salinger's output, you find that most of it deals with the Glass family to one degree or another. From "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" in "Nine Stories," to "Raise High The Roofbeam, Carpenter, and Seymour: an Introduction," the Glass family was the focus of Salinger's efforts. Salinger's best can be found in "Franny and Zooey." Sure, Franny is a histrionic drama-queen, and Zooey is a megalomaniacal, friendless jerk, who treats everyone around him as second-rate, but by the book's end, you understand how their childhoods (or lack thereof) have molded them this way. Franny has a sort of nervous breakdown, and she decides that reciting "The Jesus Prayer," as prescribed in a little book called "Journey of the Pilgrim," will eventually grant her peace. Her know-it-all brother, Zooey, lays into her, telling her that if she's going to pray "The Jesus Prayer," she needs to understand who Jesus was, and not picture Him as St. Francis of Assisi, somebody's grandmother, and their dead eldest brother, Seymour, rolled up into one. There are lots of philosophies and religious doctrines batted around, but it all boils down to a difficult brother caring for his difficult sister. I've read this book ten times, at least, and the most satisfying have been when I read all the Zooey lines aloud. (Yes, this must confuse the hell out of my neighbors, but the dialogue is so strong and rich, that it cries out to be heard and spoken, not just read silently.) Try "Franny and Zooey." If you can forgive the two title characters, you'll find a rich and rewarding read.
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