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Title: Salinger: A Biography by Paul Alexander ISBN: 1-58063-148-7 Publisher: Renaissance Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.5 (26 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: The Mystery Of J.D. Salinger
Comment: 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: 1
Summary: The arch-phony
Comment: 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: 1
Summary: A travesty
Comment: Usually, when I am about to write a review here, and I see
that others have made points I intend to make, I just forget
it. But it seems most appropriate for the point to be repeated
that this book is horrendous, syllable by syllable. Another writer says it shouldn't have been published, and that's a shrewd and exacting assessment. If not for the fact that the sense of debasement that such a master as Salinger suffers if palpable, there's also the issue of editorial scruples: doesn't this publishing house employ editors? Yes, Alexander's prose is poor (why did someone give him an MFA?). But it also includes grammatical mistakes and basic flaws in thinking and logic. Some sentences are repeated, a clear editing snaffoo. He often draws inferences that are unfounded or remarks on some coincidence or set of circumstances that he deems titillating or telling when these can be so easily dismissed.
The main problem is Alexander's infantile way of setting up a
simple dichotomy: Salinger either is a recluse at heart or
is trying to maintain prestige and import by remaining hidden. Is there nothing in between? Are people sure of their own motivations. Ultimately, the idea of thirty years of isolation as publicity stunt is hopelessly naive and insipid. It doesn't make sense and it looks at a man with a mind as great as Salinger's in an untenable fashion.
Also, there's the story of a newspaper article a girl published in a daily paper after telling S. it was for a school paper. This is a rumor, and Alexander's source is simply another magazine feature. This is one cardinal example of the flaw in writing a biography without doing research. Yes, Salinger is a tough ticket, but why didn't Alexander check out this story with those who knew S. at the time, the girl in question (if possible), the daily paper, etc? Instead, he's content to pass off this simple story as gospel on the word of an apparently ill-researched magazine piece.
Finally, a word on the story "Teddy." (Incidentally, I think Alexander's butchering of "Just Before the War With the Eskimos" is the most egregious of the bunch, with fierce competition.) When I first read the story, I, as Alexander did, thought that Teddy had killed his sister, because of the female scream. Many feel it is ambiguous. Alexander is at fault, not as much for his interpretation, but not for entertaining any others. However, I do think it's clear enough Teddy killed himself. That's where the story is heading. Also, earlier in the story, Teddy writes in his journal "it could be today or..." and then he lists a date several years later when he'd be sixteen.Later,
in a conversation with his college-aged companion, he says that he has told professors certain dates on which they should be careful because they could be in danger of losing their lives. So it seems the "it" referred to in the journal, not explained elsewhere, could be his death.
Well, alas, Salinger could be partly to blame. If you try too hard to keep biographies from being published, the publishing world becomes so greedy that any incompetent can sell one. It's too bad such a fascinating man has been degraded in this way.
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Title: Dream Catcher: A Memoir by Margaret A. Salinger ISBN: 0671042823 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger ISBN: 0316769509 Publisher: Little, Brown Pub. Date: 01 May, 1991 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: In Search of J. D. Salinger by Ian Hamilton ISBN: 0394534689 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 01 May, 1988 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: With Love and Squalor: 14 Writers Respond to the Work of J.D. Salinger by Kip Kotzen, Thomas Beller ISBN: 076790799X Publisher: Broadway Books Pub. Date: 16 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: At Home in the World by Joyce Maynard ISBN: 0312202296 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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