Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country
If it's true that A) the older we get, the grumpier we get; and B) we read to become ecstatic; then C) this is the grumpy, ecstatic old man at his best. Semi-colons intentional.
J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey
More raw, more blunt and less real than Catcher , Franny and Zooey is nonetheless a gem. With his philosophical expositions, which come to us via the voice of "Zooey On The Cross," Salinger both expounds and surpasses the argument at the core of Catcher . In Franny and Zooey , we have Salinger in a more caustic pill, one that is less easy to swallow but more honest for its open rebellion.
Salinger is railing against rules, especially rules imposed from above by unseen gods of ambition, power, money, religion. He uses the concept of a true, biblical Christ as a foil for orthodox, institutional christs, the christs on stages and altars, the ones who parade through our day-to-day promising reward, release and redemption. Franny's crisis comes not from the Jesus prayer she steadily mouths, but from the realization that she inhabits a false world. She adopts a blank vessel--her own, personal Jesus--and fills it with the things she feels are true. In doing so, she can more...
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