On the Passing of J D Salinger

[Bob Nattering]

Well, I have always been a very slow reader. When people ask me why I gravitated toward chemistry, physics and math, I honestly tell them, "because I'm a very slow reader." I could not have gone to a school that had classes where they told you to read 200 pages a night. Impossible!

So, I avoided having to actually read most of the books on the recommended reading list. Now everyone's discussing J D Salinger, and I'm wondering what I missed. Do I now at this advanced age need to go back and read "Catcher in the Rye?" Have I missed something that would have made me a little more well rounded? On my deathbed will I be thinking, "****it I wish I had read that book."

Can anyone give me advice on this?

[Loren Swelk]

If you had been forced to read Catcher in the Rye in high school, you would still be depressed. I was given the assignment to read Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth. Except for a novel use of a piece of liver I cannot remember a darn thing about it. That is probably a good thing.

[Marc.N]

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/catcher/

"...he remembers hearing that she used to be a stripper, and he believes he can persuade her to have sex with him. He calls her, and though she is at first annoyed to be called at such a late hour by a complete stranger, she eventually suggests that they meet the next day. Holden doesn’t want to wait that long and ..."

[large]

I read "Catcher" in High School as an English IV assignment . . as I had read Norman Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead" a couple of years before, "Catcher" was pretty tame, both in language and descriptive action . .