Fascinating.

Like all Salinger biographies this one suffers from the subject’s unwillingness to participate, and in this case Salinger actively placed obstacles in the path of the biographer. Having said that, the most interesting part of the book is the final chapter where Hamilton describes his (ultimately unsuccessful) legal efforts to get the book published in the form originally envisaged.
Unable to quote directly from sources such as letters penned by Salinger, Hamilton is forced to paraphrase the contents of primary materials leading to a somewhat insipid portrait. Hamilton does his best with the material he is able to accumulate but there are no startling revelations to be found within these pages.
Oh and like one of the other reviewers- the alter-ego angle doesn’t work.

I just love a good mystery. And even though it was another low moment for our judicial system, the section where they ask Salinger all those questions under oath about what he's been working on was just kind of amazing. Amazing and also sick-making at the same time. A fun book for Salinger fans, probably. I dug it anyways.

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[...] Sono tanti i motivi per cui leggere In cerca di Salinger è stata un’esperienza… interessante. Sia per il fremito di sporcarsi le mani frugando nella vita di un “mito”, sia per l’emozione di riscoprire dettagli di opere amate. Ma soprattutto per le riflessioni che la lettura stimola. E il diritto al silenzio.

Sadly Mr. Salinger is dead, but during life he was crazy about his privacy. When an unauthorized biography was in the works the author and THE AUTHOR had exchanges. When the courts ruled against him, the guy wrote a book about his efforts to write the book, and, as you can guess, a lot of the illegal manuscript ended up in this alternate version.

This is the book that made life difficult for biographers. Not that Ian Hamilton intended to do so. But his use of Salinger's letters became the tipping point for the reclusive author, who sued the biographer. In an unfortunate ruling Harold Baer virtually destroyed the idea of fair use for unpublished writing. Congress has since rectified the judge's decision but not before that decision had a chilling impact on the publishing industry. Hamilton turns his thwarted book into a kind of Search for Corvo, which is a clever biography but also an example of a desperate biographer who discovers he does not have enough reliable data. Hamilton's book is not in the same league as Search for Corvo, but you learn a good deal about the nature of biography and something as well about J. D. Salinger. Harold Baer, by the way, is at it again--this time making it difficult for authors who are scanned by Google. Is someone out there writing a book about Harold Baer's worst decisions?

this book is terrific

Easy to read detective style recounting of Hamilton's efforts to write a literary biography of Salinger.

A well-done book not simply about Salinger, but also about the attempt to be able to write about him—against his resistance. I haven’t read Salinger, probably won’t. Hamilton doesn’t really intend to make Salinger out to be a complete ass, but it’s clear that he was.

I picked this up because of Nick Hornby's Housekeeping vs. the Dirt, which I was browsing one evening, procrastinating more important responsibilities. "Housekeeping" is Hornby's journal of a year of book buying and reading. He spoke highly of Ian Hamilton, and I had recently gone through a Salinger phase, so I was ready to enjoy this for a couple of reasons.

Hamilton's detective style writing is fun and I suppose he covers pretty much what there is to know about Jerome David Salinger, the best news being that the recluse HAS been writing for the past few decades. Cool. The glimpses we get of Salinger's personality are, however, somewhat less than endearing, and I find myself having to appreciate his books for my enjoyment of them rather than the impression I have of Salinger as a person. I can do that.

I also discovered I can muster the stamina a 200 page biography requires; I have numerous literary biographies on my shelves which have rarely been opened past page 10 or so. Plan to seek out the other two books I know of that may have additional information on JDS: Dreamcatcher, by his daughter, Margaret Salinger, and another biography from 1999 by Paul Alexander.

Enjoyed this. Full of details, thoughtful and introspective. Style of the writing was interesting even without the compelling subject. Last part about copyright law is significant.

I think that Hamilton's shame almost drowns out any useful or interesting information that may have been gained from reading this book. Salinger doesn't want to be found and there's nothing wrong with that.