Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction

... Show More
This book contains two separate stories: "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters" is the first, and "Seymour: An Introduction" is the second.

"Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters" is a story about the Glass family, narrated by Buddy, the second oldest brother. Buddy is attending his brother Seymour's wedding to a gal named Muriel, but he's on Army leave during active duty in World War II. At the wedding, everyone is stunned when Seymour does not show up.

The action of the story picks up when several characters end up carpooling together following the failed wedding. The others (the Matron of Honor and her husband, and a couple of stragglers) are talking about Seymour and the disappointment of his not showing up, and Buddy never tells them that he is secretly Seymour's brother, so they talk more openly with him than they otherwise would.

They criticize Seymour and speculate about his character flaws and deficiencies, but Buddy finds their assessments quite judgmental and biased. He then decides to tell the car who he really is, shaming them for their loose criticisms.

He finds Seymour's journal, and he discovers a strange message from their sister Boo Boo for Seymour on their bathroom mirror: "Raise high the roof beam, carpenters. Like Ares comes the bridegroom/ taller far than a tall man." This is a fragment from the Greek poet Sappho.

"Seymour: An Introduction" is a kind of elegy for Seymour from Buddy, told in the form of an introduction to the reader. The reader makes Seymour's acquaintance while knowing that Seymour technically isn't alive when the story is published, having killed himself in 1948.

This portion of the story is told in stream of consciousness, and it discusses Eastern religious mysticism.

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1955

About the author

... Show More
Works, most notably novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951), of American writer Jerome David Salinger often concern troubled, sensitive adolescents.

People well know this author for his reclusive nature. He published his last original work in 1965 and gave his last interview in 1980. Reared in city of New York, Salinger began short stories in secondary school and published several stories in the early 1940s before serving in World War II. In 1948, he published the critically acclaimed story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" in The New Yorker, his subsequent home magazine. He released an immediate popular success. His depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence in the protagonist Holden Caulfield especially influenced adolescent readers. Widely read and controversial, sells a quarter-million copies a year.

The success led to public attention and scrutiny: reclusive, he published new work less frequently. He followed with a short story collection, Nine Stories (1953), of a novella and a short story, Franny and Zooey (1961), and a collection of two novellas, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). His last published work, a novella entitled "Hapworth 16, 1924", appeared in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965.

Afterward, Salinger struggled with unwanted attention, including a legal battle in the 1980s with biographer Ian Hamilton. In the late 1990s, Joyce Maynard, a close ex-lover, and Margaret Salinger, his daughter, wrote and released his memoirs. In 1996, a small publisher announced a deal with Salinger to publish "Hapworth 16, 1924" in book form, but the ensuing publicity indefinitely delayed the release.

Another writer used one of his characters, resulting in copyright infringement; he filed a lawsuit against this writer and afterward made headlines around the globe in June 2009. Salinger died of natural causes at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire.

Community Reviews

Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 99 votes)
5 stars
29(29%)
4 stars
27(27%)
3 stars
43(43%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
99 reviews All reviews
April 17,2025
... Show More
من کلا با سلینجر حال می کنم. سرش نمی دونم چیه، هر چی هست آدم رو تسخیر می کنه. نمونه درست و درمون دیگه ای از این فضا و شیوه ی نویسندگی تو آمریکا پیدا نکردم (شاید پل استر از فقط بعضی نظرا).
سیمور خیلی شخصیت جذابیه. باهوشه. در واقع نابغه است. نابغه تعریف های متعذی داره. ولی تعریفی که به نظر وجه مشترک بیشتر تعریف ها رو شامل میشه اینه که نابغه اولا آفریننده ست، ثانیا ادراک کننده ی حقیقت در سطحی عمیقه. یعنی اراده و عقلش در منتها درجه است، به شرطی که اراده رو مظهر آفرینندگی و عقل رو مظهر فهمندگی بدونیم. نابغه در زندگی روزمره چیزهایی رو درک می کنه که ما درک نمی کنیم. ضمنا مدام در حال آفرینندگیه. نابغه حتی وقتی به چیزها نگاه می کنه هم در حال آفرینندگیه. حال آنکه ما بیشتر دچار انفعال هستیم.
به نظر من، نابغه ای از جنس سیمور گلس، پدیدارشناس فوق العاده ای هم هست.
علاقه ی سیمو به شعر بسیار جالبه. هایدگر همه ی هنرها رو ذیل شعر طبقه بندی می کنه. شعر کاشف از وجوده، مظهر وجوده. سیمور وقتی به هایکوهای ژاپنی و زیر و بم های این نوع شعر توجه می کنه، مشغول نوعی وجواندیشیه! خودکشی سیمور بعد از گفتگو با دخترکی در ساحل، برای کاملا غیر قابل درکه. سیمور چیزی رو درک می کنه که ما درک نمی کنیم. نمیشه گفت خودکشی سیمور، عملی کاملا پوچ یا ابسورده. معنایی داره. سیمور که نابغه است و درک و اراده ی بی نظیری داره، دست به خودکشی می زنه. خودکشی نحوه ای از بودنه. شاید یکی از نحوه هایی از بودن که کمتر کسی اون را انتخاب می کنه. من دوست ندارم خودکشی سیمور رو عملی احساسی یا عاطفی تفسیر کنم. مگر اینکه منظورمون از احساس و عاطفه، وجوه وجودی باشه، نه وجوه موجودی یا بی اهمیت به تعبیری.
قطعا سیمور از جنبه ای نیست انگاره. به نظر من، سیمور به درک معنای وجود خودش در وهله ی اول، و درک وجود به طور کلی دست پیدا نمی کنه. خودکشی سیمور عملی قهرمانه است ناشی از درک تناهی بشر، هم از حیث آفرینندگی هم از حیث فهمندگی. چرا سیمور بعد از گفتگو با دخترکی در ساحل با گلوله مغز خودش رو متلاشی می کنه؟ بالاخره باید جوابی بدیم به این سوال. آیا افسردگی شدید؟ ولی افسردگی که خودش معلول علتی دیگه ست. پوچی؟ فک نکنم. پوچی یا نیست انگاری البته در سیمور دیده میشه، به ویژه که تا شرق دور به دنبال معنا، به دنبال شعر جستجو می کنه. پس چی؟ خودکشی سیمور چه معنایی داره؟ کلکی داستانی از جانب سلینجر؟
نقل قول سیمور از کی یرکگور در ابتدای این مونولوگ نشون میده که سیمور فیلسوفه. پس باید جوابی فیلسوفانه به این مونولوگ و سرنوشت نویسنده اش بدیم. اما چه جوابی؟
April 17,2025
... Show More
How do you summarise someone's life after they die?
Short answer: you can't.
Long answer: you can, but you'll be doing it for the rest of yours.

While i was reading this (novella? collection? essay? montage? lecture?) I kept imagining Buddy sitting in his office writing his stories about his brother by frantically searching the room and finding little moments in paragraphs hidden under desk drawers, or between the pages of books, or under his chair. Each time he would find a new one, he'd pair it with the rest of his collection, organise them into some semblance of an order, realise that there's one missing, then throw them in the air in anger only for them to re-disperse and he would have to start over again.

I love Salinger, so obviously I loved being taken on a trip with a man who wants to introduce his brother, but keeps on running into the fact that no matter how good a writer he is, or how hard he tries, he can't even begin to describe how much his older brother had meant to him. He moves through his anecdotes, his brother's philosophies and religious beliefs, his critical eye, his work as a poet, his fashion sense, his hands, his eyes, his nose, his earlobes, his skill in rhetoric, his tone of voice, his brother's place in the eternal recurrence of the world, his brother's right to be listed among the great eastern philosophers; all of this, and Buddy still can't even begin to say how much of a being his brother was before he took his own life.

This entire book is just a description of the hole Seymour left in Buddy's life. As each page goes by, you want Buddy to describe him more, to hear how he would speak to his little brother in a conversation, how they'd be in the same room together. You want to meet him, but you can't.
You can't because Seymour's been dead for over twenty years and Buddy still can't vocalise the hole his brother left behind him.
April 17,2025
... Show More
Ψηλή σηκώστε στέγη, ξυλουργοί 4,0
Σίμορ, συστατικά στοιχεία 3,50
April 17,2025
... Show More
Sia Franny e Zooey sia Alzate l'architrave carpentieri e Seymour. Introduzione sono libri dotati di una grandissima umanità. Nella famiglia Glass “il sostenersi a vicenda” è la cosa più importante, sostenuta anche dallo straordinario legame che unisce i tra loro i fratelli. Questa grandiosa umanità emerge grazie all'enorme bravura di Salinger nel caratterizzare i personaggi che sembrano tutto tranne che di finzione.
In alzate l'architrave carpentieri Buddy si reca al matrimonio di suo fratello Seymour, che non si presenta all'altare lasciando la sposa in lacrime. Da questa situazione scaturiscono vicende davvero degne di nota. Ed è proprio nella caratterizzazione delle persone invitate alla cerimonia che si nota la grande bravura dell'autore nella creazione di figure estremamente realistiche. In Seymour. Introduzione Buddy, il secondogenito dei Glass, alter ego dello stesso Salinger, diventa uno scrittore noto, che nonostante la fama ottenuta, decide di isolarsi in un bosco. Nella seconda parte del libro Buddy decide di dedicare al fratello un libro nel quale proverà ad analizzare l'affascinante personalità di Seymour, il primogenito, un personaggio enigmatico che sei anni dopo il suo matrimonio si è tolto la vita.
In queste pagine finalmente verrà svelato qualcosa di più sul primogenito, che è stata una delle figure più influenti dei Glass, ed è descritto dal fratello come una persona difficile da inquadrare.
È un uomo davvero intelligente, che bilanciava perfettamente la sua precoce voglia di sapere con una personalità semplice e sempre alla ricerca del divertimento.
È comunque molto difficile riuscire a descrivere questo personaggio: tra le pagine di Alzate l'architrave carpentieri, ad esempio Buddy lo descrive come un uomo che “saprebbe farti commuovere anche soltanto muovendo le orecchie se lo volesse”. Personalmente credo che la definizione più azzeccata per Seymour si trova nella seconda parte del libro: “il suo personaggio non è tale da essere inquadrato in nessuna forma narrativa istituzionalizzata che io conosca, ed è inconcepibile che scrivendo, qualcuno riesca ad esaurire i complessi aspetti della sua personalità in un'istantanea e nemmeno in una serie di pose, mensili o annuali”.
Sono due racconti (non so quanto sia appropriato ridurli a questo termine) davvero diversi tra loro, ma nessuno dei due è riuscito a deludermi, non possono rappresentare altro che l'inconfondibile lavoro di un genio.
Secondo me in entrambi i romanzi sulla famiglia Glass: Salinger è riuscito a raggiungere uno dei tanti apici che la scrittura può offrire.
Non voglio dilungarmi troppo anche perché nell'epigrafe l'autore ha inserito una dedica molto specifica indirizzata al lettore: “Se in tutto il mondo è rimasto ancora un lettore che legga per il gusto di leggere- o comunque che dopo aver letto se ne vada per i fatti suoi- gli chiedo o le chiedo, con indicibile affetto e gratitudine, di dividere la dedica di questo libro in quattro parti con mia moglie e i miei bambini”.
Forse è davvero meglio che io me ne vada per i fatti miei.
April 17,2025
... Show More
Μετά το "Φράνι και Ζούι", που ακόμα δεν έχω αποφασίσει αν υπερισχύει η θετική ή η αρνητική μου άποψη γι'αυτό, αποφάσισα να συνεχίσω με τις περιπέτειες των αδερφών Γκλας και δεν απογοητεύτηκα (εν μέρει).
Η πρώτη νουβέλα που αφορά στη μέρα του γάμου του μεγάλου αδερφού, του Σίμορ, ήταν απολαυστική. Χειμαρρώδης γραφή, ωραίο λεξιλόγιο, μαύρο χιούμορ, σαρκασμός και ενδιαφέροντες χαρακτήρες, θυμίζοντάς μου πολύ το Σάλιντζερ του "Φύλακα στη σίκαλη". Γι' αυτή και μόνο τη νουβέλα, θα έβαζα 5 αστέρια ξεκάθαρα!
Δυστυχώς όμως το βιβλίο δεν τελείωσε εκεί, αλλά συνεχίστηκε με τη δεύτερη νουβέλα, που ουσιαστικά είναι ένας "φόρος τιμής" του δεύτερου αδερφού Μπάντι στον πρωτότοκο της οικογένειας Σίμορ. Με κούρασε πάρα πολύ η πολυλογία του Μπάντι, αν και υπήρχαν μερικά (σπάνια) φωτεινά διαλείμματα που μου κρατούσαν το ενδιαφέρον.
Το μόνο σίγουρο είναι πως ο Σάλιντζερ ξέρει να γράφει ο άτιμος, αυτό το αναγνωρίζω ακόμα και αν δε μου άρεσε τόσο (το μισό από) αυτό το βιβλίο!
April 17,2025
... Show More
Salinger is very, very high on the sentimental favorites list, which makes this difficult to assess objectively - so let's start with the easy half of this two-novella collection.

Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters is wonderful, and while it occasionally dips a little too deeply into the preciousness well (the same well that Salinger comes oh-so-close to drowning in in Franny and Zooey), it works, and, if you've read A Perfect Day for Bananafish, serves as a pretty chilling prequel to the entire Glass family saga. (And if you haven't read APDFB, what are you waiting for? It's only one of the best short stories ever, and Nine Stories as a whole is indispensable.)

As for Seymour: An Introduction, well... I'm not quite sure what to say. (A well-placed "hoo, boy..." might be appropriate here.) I feel like Salinger had this point gotten himself into a holding pattern where he only knows how to end stories with sudden epiphanies, and he gives us three, all somewhat bargain-basement: 1. Seymour is, for Buddy, something to be given away to the world, to those who never had him. Well, alright. 2. That a Zen approach to writing, where one merely writes without aiming, is the only true way of hitting a target. (In some ways this story, with its tiring constant appeals for our astonished approval at Salinger's erudition, could be seen as a direct example of this theory, but I won't bite.) 3. A re-warmed-over repackaging of the essential lesson of Zooey, that the students that Buddy despises are no less his siblings than Seymour, Boo Boo, Walt, et al. Reading this story, one entirely understands the arguments that Hapworth 16, 1924 was proof of a teetering mind finally gone mad.

But if Salinger's work is as embedded into your DNA as it's become for me, you forgive these flaws for much the same reason it'd be sour and nitpickish to criticize the letter of a friend during hard times - one knows how deeply Buddy must be hurting. It's just a shame that Salinger didn't take over in the third-person, and let poor Buddy take a day off from the task of constantly recounting Seymour.

Read this one after you read the other Glass family stories - these serve as an effective (albeit uneven) coda for the entire affair.
April 17,2025
... Show More
خود داستان عالی بود. بی‌نقص بود. در جزییات و نشونه‌ها و پایان‌بندی و شخصیت‌پردازی و دیالوگ، آی چی کار نشی سلینجر. داستان برمی‌گرده به مراسم ازدواج سیمور و خانمش و فلش‌بک‌هایی راوی می‌زنه که هم شخصیت سیمور رو توجیه می‌کنه، همم خونواده‌شو معرفی می‌کنه. همه رو. اونقد بی‌نقص این کار رو می‌کنه که انگار داره داستان یکی از فامیل‌های خودشون رو تعریف می‌کنه. درین حد براش طبیعیه. درین حد شخصیت‌ها زنده‌ان، هرچند اصلاً عادی نیستن. ولی با چیزهایی قاطی‌شون کرده که ما رو قانع کنه. روابط بچه‌ها با هم اونقد جذابه که می‌خوای هی داستان ازشون بخونی.

یه ستاره کم می‌دم برا اون پیشگفتاره. این‌قد حرف می‌زد که نمی‌فهمیدم چی می‌گه! مثلاًَ از کلش شاید چار پنج پاراگراف رو فهمیدم چی می‌گه! ولی نگاه اونم جالب بود. اینکه اومده بود سیمور رو واکاوی و حتی یه جاهایی نقدش کرده بود. من فکر می‌کردم زویی خیلی پرت و پلاگوئه، بعد یادم افتاد توی فرنی و زویی، زویی هم پرت و پلاگوئه همم بدش نمی‌آد ادای بادی رو درآره. به‌خصوص جایی که واقعاًَ اداشو درمی‌آره. :دی و اینجا ما واقعاًَ بادی حراف رو داریم که می‌خوای یه وقتایی دستتو بذاری روی دهنش و بگی حاجی تو رو خدا اینقد آسمون ریسمون نباف. بعد درست لحظه‌ای که داری کلافه می‌شی، می‌فهمی داشته یه حرف مهم می‌زده و می‌شینی سرجات.

آقاسلینجر خیلی چاکریم. :))
April 17,2025
... Show More


Raise High was decent. I couldn't get into Seymour to save my life. I HATE reading from the POV of a crazy person & whoever the narrator is, I assume its Seymour, is stark raving fruit loops. It's impossible to follow or understand & after a few pages, I took pity on my poor brain & gave up. So far I'm 2 for 2 in disliking J. D. Salinger's published work. I'm going to try his Nine Stories since I already own it. I highly suspect I won't enjoy or finish it either.
Leave a Review
You must be logged in to rate and post a review. Register an account to get started.