درمورد کتاب مطلبی خوندم که به جای توضیحات خودم اونو قرار میدم براتون

خواندن این مجموعه داستان چشم‌انداز دیگری به داستان‌های سلینجر نشان می‌دهد و خواننده را با ابعاد دیگری از شخصیت وی آشنا می‌كند. آن سلینجر تنها و منزوی اینجا هم خودش است، اما البته می‌توان گفت به رنگی دیگر. تنهایی راز‌آلود او را هم در اینجا می‌توان دید: وحشی و سركش. این نقد جهان و انسان است و روایت روزگار تنهایی بشر. سلینجر خودش هم این‌گونه زیسته است: «چاپ كتاب دردسر به دنبال دارد و نویسنده را از زندگی معمول باز می‌دارد. از این كه كسی توی آسانسور سر صحبت را با من باز كند یا در خیابان سر راهم را بگیرد، یا بخواهد ببیند چه دارم و چه ندارم بیزارم. دلم می‌خواهد تنها باشم. كاملاً تنها. دلیل ندارد كه زندگی از خودم نباشد» ( ص ۱۰).

در داستان‌های سلینجر چیزی از جنس حرف‌های تازه هم هست. این نشان می‌دهد كه او همهٔ اوقات تنهایی خود را هم تلف نكرده است: «وقتی می‌گم جالبه نه از این نظر می‌گم كه شناورن، از این نظر جالبه كه من از وجودشون خبر دارم، اگه اون‌ها رو ندیده بودم اون وقت از وجودشون بی‌خبر بودم. و وقتی از وجودشون بی‌خبر بودم، نمی‌تونستم بگم كه حتی وجود دارن» ( ص ۲۳۱-۲۳۲).

شخصیت‌های این داستان‌ها كاملاً متفاوت با صورتك‌هایی هستند كه در جاهایی دیگر می‌توان دید. نمونه‌های وطنی را از یاد نبرید. این شخصیت‌ها راجع به چیزها و حادثه‌ها انسانی اما متفاوت سخن می‌گویند: «آخه شاعرها خیلی تو نخ هوا هستن. اون‌ها همه‌ش احساساتشونو تو چیزهایی به كار می‌گیرن كه احساسات ندارن» (ص ۲۴۸).

«”از آواز زنجره برنمی‌آید كه چه زود می‌میرد/ بر این جاده هیچ عابری نمی‌گذرد/ در این شباهنگام پاییزی.” دو شعر ژاپنیه. توشون از احساسات و این جور چرندیات خبری نیست» ( ص ۲۴۹).

نگاه مذهبی آدم‌های این قصه‌ها هم منحصر به خودشان است: « آره. خدا را دوست دارم. اما دوست داشتن من از روی احساسات نیست. اون هیچ نگفته كسی از روی احساسات دوستش داشته باشه. اگه من جای خدا بودم، هرگز دلم نمی‌خواست منو از روی احساسات دوست داشته باشن. این جور دوست داشتن آبكیه»( ص ۲۵۰)

Am ales această carte după ce am văzut aici, pe Goodreads, că este apreciată, cu argumente și am zis sa dau și eu o șansă, mai ales că nu am citit nimic de la acest autor.
Mi-au plăcut toate povestirile, dar mai ales ultima, "Teddy", mult diferite de celelalte 8 sau poate este o apreciere superficială. Lectura a curs ușor. Nu știu dacă este cazul sa îl compar pe Salinger cu cineva, citind doar câteva povestiri nu-mi pot permite asta și poate că ar fi util să mă detașez din a compara mereu. Primele povestiri le-am perceput ca făcând parte dintr o zona a absurdului, superbe. Este clar că cine poate manevra absurdul bine este un scriitor experimentat, un gânditor.
Mi-a plăcut. Recomand!

Элоиза Венглер – внешне успешная женщина, удачно вышедшая замуж, живущая в богатом особняке. Ей не нужно работать, у нее есть прислуга, поэтому домом она тоже не занимается. Она мается бездельем. Ее жизнь пуста, и она пытается заполнить ее встречами с подругой по колледжу, выпивкой и … воспоминаниями о прежних развеселых днях и своей любви к Уолту, который погиб на войне. Она эгоцентрична, равнодушна к своей дочери Рамоне, она безучастна к просьбе служанке позволить ее мужу переночевать в ее комнатенке. В общем, в ней нет ничего, что вызывало бы хоть какую-то симпатию. Напротив, наши симпатии и сожаление вызывает ее дочка, которая живет в воображаемом мире и под расспросами матери, которые та задает для смеха, рассказывает Мэри Джейн о своем невидимом друге Джимми. Это покинутый, одинокий ребенок, ненужный своей матери, не имеющий друзей и придумавший себе воображаемый мир. Но… оказалось, что этот воображаемый мир – проекция мира ее матери. Ведь Элоиза в своем безделии и ничегонеделании живет воспоминаниями о Уолте – это тоже воображаемый друг. На это наталкивает то, что Рамона заявляет, что Джимми умер, попав под машину и теперь у нее новый невидимый друг – Микки. Элоиза прекрасно осознает, как она выглядит в глазах людей, и в финале она умоляющим голосом спрашивает подругу: «Ведь я же была хорошая?». Когда она стала «плохой» – тогда, когда потеряла любовь? И как жить человеку, который потерял свою любовь? Сможет ли она стать снова «хорошей»? Зависит ли то, что человек становится хорошим, когда любит или когда счастлив? Вот такие вопросы ставит перед нами Сэлинджер.

"Девять рассказов" - это сборник, куда входит и рассказ "Лапа-растяпа".
Мои обзоры по другим рассказам и повестям можно посмотреть по ссылкам:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Salinger's "Nine Stories" should be renamed "How to Write Short Stories." While many hold up "Catcher in the Rye" as the zenith of his achievements for me it will always be this wistful and brave little book. I re-read it two or three times or year. I love it that much.

To be honest out of the nine stories collected here I would say that only a third are Salinger's best. "Perfect Day for Banafish," "For Esme - With Love and Squalor," and "The Laughing Man" are to me the peaks of short fiction. Everything that Salinger does best he does in these three tales. Nobody wrote children better than him. They leap off the page at you right into your lap. Esme, her brother, Seymour's little friend and the narrator of "Laughing Man" are so vivid and real you feel like running them all down the street for ice cream and cake. They are that true to life.

Same goes for Seymour in "Banana Fish" and the narrator of "For Esme." Nobody got into the heads of brilliant but troubled young people better than Salinger. What we hear about Seymour as opposed to what we see creates a palpable (and beautiful)tension. The narrator of "For Esme"'s war inflicted emotional problems are drawn with such artistry as to flood over you as you read.

"Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut," "Daumier-Smith's Blue Period," and "War with the Eskimos" to me fall into the "damn entertaining but not great" category. These stories are beautifully observed, funny, poignant and always a pleasure to read but lack that magic the first three have to spare. Of course that being said even being good but not great Salinger makes them better than most.

Finally "Teddy," "Down in the Dinghy" and "Pretty Mouth Green My Eyes" are good stories but I feel they suffer from being collected in the same book as the others. Each alone is enthralling but not a one of them is a patch on "Esme," or "Bananafish." Where the other stories feel like a full meal these come off more like snacks. Tasty but not quite filling.

If you like Salinger and want to read something by him that won't make you want to shoot a president or a sixties rock star this my friend is the book for you.

Salinger is great isn't he? Ever since my initial reading and love affair with "Catcher" three summers ago I've been meaning to read more of his work. I liked this collection of nine stories. My favourites? A Perfect Day for Bananafish, Down at the Dinghy, For Esmé - With Love and Squalor, De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period, and, of course, Teddy. The others were good but just... forgettable. If you enjoyed Catcher then read this!

La vita è un caval donato

Non starò a ripetere il solito mea culpa sulla narrativa breve, trascurata e subordinata ai romanzi, ritenuti a lungo non solo la migliore ma l’esclusiva forma letteraria degna di nota.

Poi mi sono imbattuto in Wallace e Carver, Saunders e la Munro ed altri ancora e le eccezioni sono diventate regola, ma ciò non mi ha impedito di stupirmi di fronte a questa ennesima dimostrazione, firmata J.D.Salinger, della sottile malìa del racconto e delle sue pressoché infinite potenzialità allusive.

Nel merito, cosa posso dire di questa eccellente raccolta, tanto scarna nel titolo quanto ricca nelle nove direzioni in cui l’arte del narrare si spinge, una raccolta della quale tutto è stato già analizzato? Mi limito a citare i due aspetti che hanno maggiormente colpito la mia attenzione.

Il primo è la grande pregnanza dei dialoghi: quasi tutti i racconti sono costruiti con una precisione chirurgica improntata soprattutto all’arte del dialogo; da qualche parte ho sentito usare per questi racconti l’aggettivo “radiofonici” e penso che la definizione sia calzante perché sembrano davvero costruiti per essere recitati in dialogo, una voce a fare da contrappunto all’altra con uno straordinario effetto musicale, talora dissonante ma sempre teso ad un significato superiore che, a sorpresa, si coglie (o così sembra) via via che il racconto procede o addirittura alla fine, in una visione retrospettiva che induce alla rilettura.

Il secondo elemento, che pur a distanza di decenni mi riporta alla fulminante e decisiva lettura di “Il giovane Holden” (sì, sono uno di quelli…), è la capacità di dare voce, carattere, personalità ai bambini, cosa tutt’altro che facile e scontata se si pensa quante volte abbiamo incontrato nei romanzi o nei film bambini petulanti, improbabili, sdolcinati, in una parola insopportabili!

Qui invece la voce dei bambini è resa con delicata appropriatezza, lasciando sì uno stridore insito nell’età acerba della vocina ma sublimandone l’effetto con una grande delicatezza, sorprendente se si pensa al leggendario caratteraccio dell’autore…

This is my 3rd read of this short story collection. Anyone who knows me well knows that Salinger is my be all, end all. I have a complete and passionate bias. This collection of 9 short stories were written in the 5-10 years following WWII and most were originally published in the leading magazines of the day. They are a true time capsule of post-war life in the late-1940s, early-1950s, and you can't hardly read them without a cigarette in one hand and a highball in another. What is brilliant, absolutely brilliant about these stories. . . is that they are almost all dialogue. What you learn, quickly, about these intriguing characters. . . you learn almost exclusively through believable and intimate conversations. You are the fly on the wall.

3.5 Stars
Some stories were amazing, like the first story and that ending of it.. written so calmly that it shocks.
Some were good and some just felt dated

To me, short stories always feel like sampling the chef’s taster menu – afterwards, I never feel fully sated and just wish I could have had more of the courses I liked the most. It’ a set of appetisers without the satisfaction of a full meal. That said, there was a lot here to admire and enjoy.

Even a minimal amount of research on Salinger throws up the fact that as a GI in World War , he was traumatised by the Battle of the Bulge and Nazi concentration camps. So, it’s not surprising to see this reflected in stories first published as a set in 1953. It’s inherent in two of the best-known stories: A Perfect Day for Banana Fish and For Esme - with Love and Squalor. In both the impacts of war on its participant, it is graphically depicted. War and anti-Semitis also permeates some of the other tales. It feels like an ever-present backdrop to this set.

The other theme here is that of religion and of mystical experiences. This takes the lead in two other stories: De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period and Teddy. I confess found these the hardest to warm to.

Quite a few of the tales feature children having grown-up conversations with adults they’ve not previously met. Children are the centre-point to a number of the episodes. These conversations are universally well drawn. In fact, all the conversations in all the stories feel real and alive, aided by the author’s preference for using italics to emphasise certain words or parts of words.

My favourite is The Laughing Man, in which a revered leader (known as The Chief) regales young members of the Comanche Club in the 1920’s, with tales of a mythical hero. This story ends ambiguously, but it’s all in the telling, and the telling is very fine indeed.

Overall, it was a very rewarding collection: thought-provoking, amusing, and, I think, with some stories that will live long in the memory. It’s certainly wetted my appetite to read more of Salinger’s work.

I am rereading Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger, titled by an English publisher For Esme: With Love and Squalor, reviewing my favorites separately along the way. “Esme” is one of those stories. The collection focuses on how the US was doing post WWII. Salinger was a veteran, having fought at the Battle of the Bulge and other famous battles. He also worked in counter-intelligence as well. When he was at the Battle of the Bulge he was carrying six chapters of the Catcher in the Rye, and he also wrote as many as twenty short stories during the war.

I have already reviewed "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" separately from the collection. See links below. "Esme" is also one of my three favorites of the collection.

“Esme” is one of his most intimate and seemingly personal stories in Nine Stories. It features a Sergeant X that bears a close resemblance to Salinger and his war experience, and a little girl named Esme (see also the little girl in “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” and Catcher). Esme only talks to him for about a half hour but sets up a writing correspondence with X; she asks him to write a book with “squalor” in it, and in the story (see title) he obliges, as in the second half of the story X is hospitalized with “battle fatigue,” or PTSD, or a nervous breakdown, all labels for a condition experienced by millions of soldiers traumatized by combat.

Salinger suffered from PTSD and it may have affected him the rest of his life as he within several years dropped out of society and became a recluse. Salinger thought the escapist and almost exclusively celebratory post-war America failed to acknowledge the horrors of war. The story was intended as an act of healing for his fellow vets.

Salinger hated the cover of the story collection named by his British publisher as Esme, not Nine Stories, and Salinger detested the cover that featured what he saw as a “dishy” blonde. Esme for him represented the innocence of childhood that for many had been destroyed by the war for veterans. I find it very moving, not without humor or sweetness.

In 1963 a film version was in the works; Salinger insisted the part of Esme be played by New Yorker humorist writer Peter DeVries's daughter Jan, but it never worked out.

In 1963, film and TV director Peter Tewksbury approached Salinger about making a film version of the story. Salinger agreed, on condition that he himself cast the role of Esmé. He had in mind for the role Jan de Vries, the young daughter of his friend, the writer Peter de Vries (and yes, I am well aware of Salinger's interest in younger women, including Joyce Maynard, who lived with him when she was eighteen--I read that book and liked it, but my view is that the stories in this collection and in Catcher--Holden's sister--feature young girls as somewhat idealized symbols of childhood goodness).

“I Fought in a War” by Belle & Sebastian, inspired by this story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKRDa...

Briefly, on a couple of the other stories:

"Just Before the War with the Eskimos" is a story about two girls who just played tennis. They go to prep school together. Ginnie, goes to Selena's house, asking for money she is owed, and talks to two guys there who change her mind make her more empathetic.

"Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes"--See all the light and whimsical titles? There is a kind of quirky humor in the stories, ala James Thurber, Peter DeVries, Tom Robbins, Richard Brautigan, but the difference with Salinger is a layer of melancholy/dysfunction in part connected to the war and the conditions of naive postwar America. "Pretty Mouth" is basically a conversation between a guy and his drunken friend that reminds me of Raymond Carver and John Cheever, a fifties eversion of endless booze stories.

"De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period" is mostly a romp, with lots of jokes, where Seymour teaches art through a correspondence school. This reminds me of Peter DeVries.

"Teddy" is about Seymour's little brother Teddy on a cruise. Teddy is ten, seen as brilliant, Buddhist, infused with some of Salinger's own exploration of western vs. eastern notions of spirituality.

My review of "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" can be found here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

My review of "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" can be found here:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

"Vorrei proprio sapere perché mai la gente dia tanta importanza alle emozioni"

Ho sempre pensato di essere una lettrice da romanzo. Il tempo narrativo del racconto è troppo breve, pensavo. Non ho il tempo fisico di affezionarmi, di stazionare, di fare un viaggio sufficientemente lungo e 'immersivo' coi personaggi di una storia breve. Insomma non mi è proprio dato il tempo sufficiente per fare amicizia con loro. Sostenevo.

Di nuovo Anobii. Giudizi stellari per i nove racconti. Nove è uno dei miei numeri preferiti (9=3^2... a ciascuno le sue fissazioni), non è una raccolta lunga, Il giovane Holden mi era piaciuto moltissimo. Quindi mi son lanciata.

E ora son qui che mi chiedo come commentare una tale raccolta. Sì perché ciascuna storia ivi contenuta sarebbe degna di essere citata o ricordata.
Ogni racconto un modello.

I temi presenti. Lo sguardo lucido, asciutto...chirurgico dei bambini. Le loro osservazioni acute mai banali. Il coraggio e l'ostinata difesa di coloro che amano. Il piglio sicuro e la mancanza di indecisione. E per contro un mondo costituito da adulti soli, smarriti, distrutti spesso dalla guerra o dalle proprie nevrosi, da relazioni vuote, deludenti e fallimentari.
I dialoghi. Talmente incisivi e definiti da essere reali.
Ma credo che l'aggettivo più appropriato per definire questi racconti sia proprio folgorante. (Quanta quota parte in questo caso va riconosciuta alla traduzione di Fruttero?)

E incantata dalla radiosità di "sorrisi brevissimi, ristretti", ammaliata da "ragazze sconvolgenti e definitive", agghiacciata dalle conversazioni notturne di uomini con capelli grigi, intenerita dalla "comicità intollerabile" di un simpaticissimo bimbetto quatrenne, divertiti dall'arguzia di una tredicenne "estremamente comunicativa per la sua età", basita dalle affermazioni profetiche di un bimbo decenne sull'ottusità dell'approccio logico e intellettuale (da mangiamela) degli adulti, straziata da bimbe miopissime il cui unico affetto è costituito da amici immaginari per far spazio ai quali dormono sul bordo del letto, esilarata dalle lettere impertinenti a suore pittrici da parte di improbabili insegnanti d'arte, ho sofferto, ho riso, mi son stupita ma soprattutto mi son emozionata (ahimè... io son tra quella gente che alle emozioni che dà molta importanza alle emozioni)

Che dire d'altro se non che Esmè, ragazzina amante di storie squallide, e suo fratellino Charles rimarranno per sempre nel mio cuore. E a proposito... "Cosa dice un muro ad un altro muro? "...

I love this book so much that it soared into one of my top reads ever. Salinger is such a genius. I particularly loved bananafish, esme, and teddy, but all the short stories were so filled with symbolism and perspective. Going to be hard to find a book to top this for the rest of the year.