Rating: 
Summary: A cult classic of the fifties, worth reading today
Review: This was THE book of the 50's and early 60's, along with Catcher in the Rye. In some strange way, J.D. Salinger caught the angst of the young and thoughtful and they grabbed these books with both hands. But do they speak to youth (or anyone else) today?Well, maybe Franny and Zooey is worth a look. For one, take the fact that "The Prayer of Jabez" is on the best seller list now for weeks. This book recommends a fixed prayer, to be repeated as sort of a meditation. In Franny and Zooey, Franny, a brilliant and introspective teenager, comes home frantically repeating the "Jesus Prayer", looking for some kind of metaphysical escape from herself. She's looking for some kind of Zen-like release from ego. Part of growing up is discovering who we are and we may not like everything we see. Part of maturation, much later on, is accepting even those flaws. But Franny wants an instant release from distasteful self-discovery, so she heads instead for destruction. Her brother Zooey saves her by an ingenious bit of sophistry; isn't focusing on escaping the self a form of egotism? He argues that her ideas are flawed and provides a lot of interesting arguments about her belief system. For example, his astute remarks that Franny disapproves of Jesus and is more sympathetic with Buddhism is strikingly akin to people today who feel strongly they must become vegetarian and disapprove of Christians and yet cannot say exactly why, except that they feel Christians criticize them and that animals are somehow innocent and all-loving. Consider this quote from Zooey: "And the other thing you disapproved of- the thing you had the Bible open to- was the lines 'Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.' That was all right. That was lovely. That you approved of. But, when Jesus says in the same breath, 'Are ye not much better than they?'- ah, that's where little Franny gets off. That's where little Franny quits the Bible cold and goes straight to Buddha, who doesn't discriminate against all those nice fowls of the air. All those sweet, lovely chickens and geese that we used to keep up at the Lake." Salinger's uncanny depiction of the anguish of youth, coupled with Eastern mysticism and an eccentric but lovable family became a cult classic in the 50's. While Catcher in the Rye unerringly pinpoints the feelings of a teenage boy, Franny catches so much of the feelings of a girl that some analysts of the book have proposed that the real reason behind Franny's breakdown was that she was pregnant. I totally reject that notion, but it is interesting that her troubles are so well described that readers ascribe a typical teen trouble, rather than the fact that Franny, like Holden Caulfield, is facing maturity with fear and loathing. Worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: I really enjoyed FRANNY & ZOOEY. The characters in this book are amazingly true to life and very believable. Each viewpoint expressed has its own merits and its own drawbacks, but each side is treated with a certain amount of respect. In far too many other books, the author's own philosophies will get in the way of the story and skew it in such a manner that one argument gets though virtually unscathed, while the other one ends up looking remarkably shaky. The person with the "correct" ideas is shown to be thoughtful and wise while the other ends up looking like a close-minded jerk. Here, however, J. D. Salinger was able to show both sides, warts and all, while letting both Franny and Zooey's viewpoint remain intact and stay true to their character. The discussion they have is quite realistic and touches on real subjects - taking the higher and nobler aspects of religious and theology and bringing them into one's everyday life is something that a lot of people have thought about but not everyone has done. I highly recommend these two stories. They're real and they're believable.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, a modern-day story with theology
Review: This book brought in everything I've ever hoped for. There were ties of philosophy and theology with a modern-day story that it feel so rich and vibrant. To read this, I think you have to be prepared to not know what the plot is going to be. That's the only problem. If you really wanted to, you could read the last 14 pages and have a good grasp of what the entire book is about. However, i do not suggest doing that. Franny is the typical teenager looking for meaning in her life. Zooey is the typical twenty year-old who wants something in his life that he can be proud of. Both love each other, but both are going no where. It's the type of book where you just want to keep reading and i absolutely love it.
Rating:
Summary: and it's tasty too.
Review: This book gave me a feeling, as another review put it, of familiarity. A lot of the philosophies or ways of thinking expressed by both Franny and Zooey reminded me a lot of thoughts that have often crossed my mind and the beliefs that have sprung from those thoughts. I'm actually supposed to write a review for this book in my Creative Writing class in HS. The assignment tells us to pretend that this is a book that has "just been published" and we are to tell whether it contends to modern-day life. I'd say that the subjects hit upon in this book are indeed time-less and thought provoking.
Rating: 
Summary: A Trifle Thoughtful Story
Review: Contrary to popular belief, I believe this is one story-not two-and would go as far as to say that anyone thinking this novel was two separate stories, or even two interrelated separate stories, must have missed the boat all together. The story of Franny and Zooey is about a brother and sister, whom you are persuaded (rather weakly) to believe were the victims of their older siblings' religious influences. What a bore. Salinger's philosophical spewing is elementary at best. As a side note, Salinger used the word "trifle" a trifle too many times (every four pages to be exact-- check it out).
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: Catcher in the Rye gets more attention, but Franny and Zooey blew me away, too. I read the whole thing in about two sittings - I hadn't planned to, but it was just so wonderful that I couldn't put the book down. If you don't like books where characters sit around talking for hundreds of pages, well, you won't like this book - because all the characters really do is sit around and talk. But it's wonderful talk, the kind that really makes you think. So go out and read it, now.
Rating:
Summary: Two Great Related Short Stories
Review: In a nutshell - offspring who are too intelligent for their own good, oblivious parents, suicide, meaning of life, nervous breakdown, our purpose, and references like being an arhat thrown in here and there. It all felt very personal and familiar and made me wonder how many other people would find that these two stories hit close to home. I should mention that I just discovered recently that this is my brothers favorite book (and he's no "phony"). I wouldn't rate it as my favorite, but I do have an affinity with this text, having now read it twice, once as a teenager and now as a thirtysomething. Salinger describes this work in the preface as "a pretty skimpy looking book". It's certainly short, but both stories are funny and addresses how a family - albeit highly dysfunctional by today's pop-psychology standards - deals with issues like death and suicide. I really enjoyed the interplay in the second story between brother and sister Franny and Zooey over big questions like the search for wisdom, being real and losing the ego.
Rating:
Summary: "1" star, because 1/5 of the book was good
Review: the first 1/5th of the book was good, had a good plot going, interesting characters, vintage salinger, the cynicism, the whole nine yards. but then it just went to hell in a handbasket, fizzled and puzzled and wuzzled and ultimately just became unreadable and DULL. god bless you if you can finish this book and have enjoyed the whole thing...i couldn't. indigestable.
Rating: 
Summary: Yeah, yeah, whatever...
Review: This is an interesting book in its way, and I do think it's worth reading, but after you finish reading it, please think about this, whoever reads this... If these characters are such geniuses, and so preoccupied with love, then why aren't they trying to find a cure for cancer? Wouldn't that be an act of love??? Why aren't they working with impoverished children, giving them an education? Why aren't they working to develop safe places for people to live, in case there's a nuclear war? It's because they are a couple of self-absorbed, rich, elitist jerks who don't think about how preposterously, INCREDIBLY lucky they are to have been born to parents who chose to live in a city with bookstores or libraries that even HAVE of the books they quote so freely. Also, they can get away with making boredom and ennui look theatrically sexy. Big deal. They should spend some time in the Peace Corps, or Teach for America, or distributing food at a camp in Ethiopia to starving babies. Wake up, Franny and Zooey, you absolute, total, complete, overwhelming losers. Get out in the world and help someone else, that's the only way you'll understand what love is. Two thumbs down.
Rating:
Summary: Lacking, wandering: similar to many "classics"
Review: With all due respect to Salinger fans, I found this lacking. The only entertaining thing, in my eyes, was the references to Jappam and the meditations. Still, as far as the "story" itself, there wasn't much of one. Though I'm not a huge fan of "Catcher in the Rye" either, at least that one took you through the life of a boy. This one left you in an apartment and let you hear them talk. Oh boy.
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