I have to confess that spent some time in sort of a daze after I read "The Catcher in The Rye". I'm not exactly sure why, but perhaps because I liked Salinger's style so much and because I share some of Holden Caulfield's feelings about people and life in general (what should worry me a lot but doesn't). All this compelled me to make a trip to the nearest decent bookstore and get more by Salinger (and you should know there isn't a lot more). I came back home with this book and I had to ditch Robert Heinlein's "Time Enough For Love", which was not really captivating my attention, to start on this new one.
No regrets. "Franny and Zooey" is very different from "Catcher" and yet very similar; that's a paradox for you to figure out, thank you. This is about the Glass family or rather about their seven wonder kids who captured peoples attention for years on a radio quiz show. The story's direct focus is on two of these kids, Franny and Zooey, but goes on with the haunting presence (or rather the strong absence) of the oldest brother Seymour, who killed himself years earlier, and the second oldest Buddy, who lives basically incommunicado somewhere in New Hampshire.
Franny was going through a really harsh time in life, looking for her own directions or something, when a book picked up from her dead brother's collection stirs things up in her mind. The book talks about a pilgrim who discovers a way to pray incessantly and how this radically changes his life. She becomes highly obsessed with this form of prayer, which amounts to using the Jesus Prayer as a mantra, and seems to be heading for a nervous breakdown worrying her family sick.
Her mother and father experience a feeling of impotence when they discover they cannot help her out and leave the task of rescuing her fall to their charming son, Zachary Glass, a young actor who describes himself and his sister as freaks created by their two older brothers.
It's a beautifully written book, highly and deeply spiritual, that should be a must read for Salinger's fans. Also note that the Glass family appears in several other works such as "Seymour: An Introduction" and short storiesin "Nine Stories". If you really get into the Glasses, don't forget to go dig for the other references. I'll make sure to post all my findings here for you, but just to tease you a little, the June 97 issue of Esquire has an article on "The Haunted Life of J. D. Salinger" that was motivated by the reissue of yet another story about the Glass family, originally printed in The New Yorker in 1965, which has recently been authorized by it's author.
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