For as long as I can remember, people have told me that this was the worst of the Salinger collection. His Godfather III if you will. Having read it, I'm not sure what the hell they were thinking. For me, I enjoyed these two stories immensely. Raise High is written in the style of Franny and Zooey, though from the perspective of a different brother (Buddy). Seymour is different. I don't want to characterize it in one form or another. As a piece of background, both stories revolve around the eldest Glass brother, Seymour (though he doesn't even make an appearance in Raise High). Those who are familiar with Salinger's "9 Stories" will remember Seymour as the character who took his life in "a perfect day for a bananafish." Having read that book earlier (10 years earlier actually, though i've reread it 4 or 5 times again in between then and now), its interesting to get some serious background on Seymour. These stories give him depth and real character. I imagine that going back to reread 9 stories the next time will make that first story an entirely different experience.

As for "Seymour: An Introduction," this story is very well crafted and very complicated. Not necessarily in terms of subject matter, but in the way its written, and the hidden layer to the story as well. On one level, it's clear that Buddy (the author) idolizes his older brother. On the other hand, its also clear that he feels betrayed to a degree by Seymour's suicide. 20 years after the fact, Buddy is still writing about his brother and still remembering things from their childhood with clarity. He is still learning lessons, but you can sense that there is a sense of loss and almost betrayal b/c of Seymour's decision.

Both stories enhance the Glass family mythology, and if you're a fan of Salinger's other stories, you should not let some readers' impression that these stories are the Godfather III of his collection dissuade you from reading them.

Живеш-живеш, а тут тобі раз — і ще не читаний Селінджер. Як завжди, надто швидко закінчився

با این‌که کند کتاب می‌خوانم یک‌شبه خواندمش چرا که این توانایی را دارم هر کتابی از سلینجر را بی‌وقفه بخوانم. داستان را دوست داشتم اگرچه دلم می‌خواست جای سه ستاره دو و نیم ستاره امتیاز می‌دادم ولی خب نمی‌شود.
ترجمه کتاب خیلی بد بود و همین چند بار به ویژه در پنجاه صفحه ابتدایی وسوسه‌ام کرد نیمه خوانده رهایش کنم. استفاده از لغاتی که در گفت‌وگوهای روزمره‌ی مردم رایج نیست برخلاف لحن روایت سلینجر که اصولن پرطمطراق نیست، از قضا خود نویسنده هم به آن در پیش‌گفتار کتاب اشاره می‌کند، از ایرادهای ترجمه است.

A fine lettura ti viene spontaneo...
per non tradire una vecchia abitudine dei fratelli Glass,se ti scappa un commento dove lo vai a scrivere?
Sullo specchio del bagno , come Boo Boo, con una scheggia di sapone inumidita
:) Cosa c'è scritto sullo specchio ?
mah, mica facile scrivere con un pezzetto di sapone , comunque , così mi pare
questo è uno di quei libri dalle eccezionali doti di piacevolezza , malinconia, e indimenticabilità ( anche se la calligrafia in certi punti è quasi indecifrabile e c'è un certo margine di interpretazione )
4/5 stelle!

I always struggle with remembering what Salinger's Glass family stories are about but I always enjoy them immensely. Much more so than Catcher in the Rye. Fun fact: when I read Catcher in the Rye, I didn't like it because I felt like I outgrew the age when I would have had sympathy for Holden's circumstances. Meanwhile, I was 16...
Anyway, Salinger is strange but great. Need to reread all of it.

4.5 Stars rounded up

This book contains 2 novellas about Seymour Glass as told by his younger brother Buddy.

The first, "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters," is a prequel to Salinger's short story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish." It is the story of Seymour Glass' wedding day told with witty dialogue and rich, brilliant prose. One remarkable thing about this story is Seymour doesn't physically appear in the tale. We learn about him from what the other characters say and by the entries of his diary that Buddy reads.
5 Stars

The second novella has a very different style; it combines expository and narrative writing, supported by a number of anecdotes. Buddy, now age 40, is looking back and trying to convey who his brother Seymour was as a child and a young man. I had a little difficulty getting started with this piece; then after the first 6 or 7 pages I fell into Salinger's rhythm. Rather than a linearly written novella, Buddy tells us this is a distribution of "mementos, amulets broken out of his wallet and passed around like ‘snapshots."
4 Stars

I strongly recommend that you read Salinger's outstanding collection Nine Stories, or at least the short stories "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "Teddy" before picking up this book so that you may better understand this work.

I read Raise High The Roofbeam again in 2021. It's his best work.

The two long short stories or novellas are night and day. Raise High The Roofbeam, is vintage Salinger. It's A Perfect Day for a Banafish and Franny and Zooey. He's able to take these strangers put them in car and make it work for 95 pages. The dialogue and social interactions are first rate.

Seymour is more difficult. Salinger has some stuff about not aiming and just shooting, or in this case writing. But I think he's trying to write bad on purpose. There are some great passages that are very self-reflective of the author or expose the phonies in the conformist society, classic Salinger. But the writing is as indirect as possible.

Salinger kept writing until his death. He published one other longer story after this Hapworth 16, 1924 ~25k words, which was also received poorly. It's hard to tell whether he was being weird on purpose like Bob Dylan's Street Legal or just plain spent like Down in a Groove. We can still speculate if there is one more Time out of Mind out there but that seems to less likely every year that passes. If Salinger had one more left we'd have it by now and his decision to not publish after this most likely reflects a realization on some level that he was through.

yükseltin tavan kirişini ustalar için kurşun atar kurşun yerim. bakınız böyle kamyon arkası yazısı gibi değerlendirme yazacak kadar bayıldım. seymour: bir giriş’in hakkını tam olarak veremediğiminse farkındayım. birkaç yıl sonra tekrar dönmek üzere, sevgiler.

I think that with this book I finished reading about the Glass family, and I’m not going to lie, that knowledge makes me want to go outside, lay on the ground, and wait for the earth to take me.

Or at the very least reread Franny and Zooey, and then reread Nine Stories, and then reread this, in an unending loop until eventually I get sick of them and then can go on with my life unemotionally.

(I don’t think I could ever get sick of them but it’s an optimistic thought.)

I would have loved these stories of this family no matter what, I think - I mean, it’s hardly a unique trait to be an English major with a fondness for Franny and Zooey - it’s referenced in Caroline Kepnes’ You, for god’s sake - maybe I’ll just make this entire review a series of clauses bracketed by dashes until everyone unfollows me - but I was extra destined to love them, because I read them alongside one of my favorite people. I will always have affection for this family and these stories and Salinger, and more so because of the wonderful memories I have of reading them, and the time in my life when I was doing so.

AND THAT MAKES IT EXTRA SAD THAT NOW I’M DONE.

My heart actually hurts.

I love this family so much, and I love their stories, and these two additions are equally as lovely.

The first story, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, is a top to bottom delight. (Also, in the interest of full discretion: until I actually opened this book I did not realize that the title was two separate story titles. I have no excuse for this, considering Franny and Zooey is the exact same thing, but here we are.)

Seymour: An Introduction, counterintuitively, for me started out tiresome and got less and less so. Really in the end I caught myself thinking “oh, to be such a wonderful person that a story like this is written about you,” and the fact that Seymour is fictional seemed nearly beside the point.

The Glass family is very real to me.

Bottom line: What I wouldn’t give to go back to reading Franny and Zooey for the first time.

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there's not enough Salinger in the WORLD, honey!

review to come / between 4 and 4.5 stars

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i'm sad and i'm going to read Salinger until i feel better

When a panoramic awareness of the real face of the world first hits you, it’s paralyzing.

If you manage to find your footing again, it’s - more and more bearably - only a hard struggle; though it gets worse before it gets better. And if you find real, solid happiness in your life after all that, it’s the beginning of your journey’s end, and a Real Blessing - “a crown upon your life’s work.”

For Nature made supreme happiness our natural human goal.

This little review is only about Seymour, and not the other bright Glass kids...

Seymour is trapped right at the outset of that first phase. Like Dante was, in a Dark Wood. For him, panoramic awareness is a curse. And that it in fact is - until you can turn it into a blessing.

But the blessing is stillborn in Seymour, because he buries the curse.

And the Curse - which happened right at the very beginning of things - is the lot of ALL of us whether we know it or not.

Seymour chooses to run away from it! Big mistake... For once the ghost is seen, it will haunt him forever. Until it has been blessed and laid to rest.

And the way it haunts him is all in one word:
Depression.

He says to a little kid playing nearby - Try not to see so clearly! Like he always disconnects his own heightened awareness. But real life is nothing if not a struggle, and that struggle begins with the heightening of awareness. Giving in to Depression, though, is wanting to curl up and die.

Even when God is calling our name!

It’s like it was for Roquentin in Sartre’s Nausea - resistance is futile, the mediocre Shadows say to him on that murky side of life. Or like the inscription says over Dante’s Hell. ‘Give up hope if you come here!’

The Shadows lie.

Hope is the only key to the lock, so use it before night falls - and keep on hoping ever afterwards!

As Paul says, we are saved by Hope. Which is not to say Seymour will not be saved, for hope springs Eternal in the reader who has faith to see such things.

But in the meantime...

Life hurts.

A lot.

Poor, poor Seymour.

If Seymour had a chance to have that hurt assuaged by Love, perhaps he could keep up the struggle.

But then - none of us knows What Dreams May Come.

Though that ignorance is itself partially a Blessing.

Alzate il cappello

Ripiombare dentro Salinger, a distanza siderale dal Giovane Holden - pur sempre presente - crea un misto di esaltazione, disperazione - perché chi mai scriverà più così - e sgomento - perché come faceva Salinger a capire che io (cioè tu, noi, voi), proprio soltanto io ero il suo lettore. La dedica della prima pagina di "Alzate l'architrave..." va dritto al cuore:
"Se in tutto il mondo è rimasto ancora un lettore che legga per il gusto di leggere - o che comunque 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."
Naturalmente, la conversazione con il lettore si dipana durante tutto il racconto ma, anziché dare terribilmente sui nervi - così come la disdicevola abitudine dei cineasti presa a prestito da Woody Allen e copiata troppe volte di far intervenire un attore che si rivolge direttamente al pubblico in sala, rompendo la sacra allenanza, il patto, la sospensione di credulità e tutto quanto alimenta la finzione, (scusate la lunghezza della frase, le parentesi, ma esco da Salinger, sono felice e frastornata), Salinger sta parlando a quattr'occhi con noi, personalmente, e questo è semplicemente vero.
Il genio sprizza da ogni parte, e l'inganno funziona: pur sapendo qualche cosa della vita di Salinger, la famiglia di sette fratelli e sorelle è totalmente viva, allo stesso titolo o più di quella di John Fante, con l'insignificante differenza che la seconda è copiata dalla realtà.
Ma quello che dico qui, lo dico soltanto per il primo racconto, quello dallo splendente titolo "Alzate l'architrave, carpentieri"; il secondo "Seymour. Introduzione" veleggia lontano dietro, con le sue digressioni.
A proposito, di che cosa parla? Di suo fratello...come Proust parla dei suoi vicini di casa o Roth del suo organo preferito...Di che cosa parla è l'ultima domanda che viene in mente quando il libro è buono.

نکته ای که من درک نمیکنم تلاش نویسنده های امروز بر اسرار امیز و مبهم نشان دادن زندگی فردی خود است, یکی در کلبه ای خود را حبس میکند,گویی ارتعاشات انسان های عادی مثل ما الهاماتی که به وی می رسد را در نوشتن رمان هایی با شخصیت های مقوا مختل میکند,دیگری چیز هایی راجب خود میگوید که حقیقت ندارد..
ندیدیم که مثلا چخوف یا داستایوفسکی به این موش و گربه بازی ها بپردازند یا که سعی کنند رابینسون کروزو ی ادبی باشند ,به اصطلاح شهرت گریز و زاهد بنظر بیایند(در حقیقت اما سطحی و متظاهر) تا که در نهایت از جزیره شان هر ده پانزده سال یک کتاب عمیقا معمولی بیرون دهند..
صرفا میتوان گفت که چخوف و داستایوفسکی ها مشکلات واقعی داشته اند و نویسندگان واقعی بوده اند...اینها اما پوشالی اند چه در نوشته چه در سبک زندگی...



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به سلینجر احترام میذارن و اسرار امیز میدوننش چرا که در انزوا زندگی میکنه
''برای من این موضوع بی اهمیته
به اثار سلینجر به عنوان دغدغه انسان مدرن,به عنوان ترکیبی از فلسفه و عرفان نگاه میکنند
''برای من تنها نوشتن انگاره های یک ذهن نه چندان خلاقه..
به شخصیت پردازی سلینجر..سیمور,فرنی,زویی وسایر افراد خانواده ساختگی گلس اشاره میکنن..شاهکار و جاویدان میدونن
''برای من جز شخصیت ها مقوایی و بیش از حد self involvedیی بیش نیستن..که هرگز قلم هیچکدوم من رو نگرفت..حتی لحظه ای..
برای من دلیل محبوبیت سلینجر,امریکا س,رمان منطبق بر رویای امریکایی و پروپاگاندای همراه هر چیزیه که دو حرف UوSرو یدک میکشه..
هیچ دغدغه واقعی,حتی هیچ سیر تفکر قدرتمندی رو ندیدم در قلم سلینجر..شخصیت ها میخوان بزور استفراغ کنن که پیچیده یا باهوشن..
برای من نیستند.
.
پ.ن:قبل از اینکه دوستانی تذکر بدن من این رو درک نکردم,باید بگم که قوای درک من در همه شرایط یکسانه,همانطور که در لذت بردن من از اثار عمیق و استخوان دار دنیا شکی نیست,در این مورد هم شکی نیس که انتقاد من دانسته و از ذهن برامده وارد شده.