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Fixed on Fiction

Franny & Zooey by J.D. Salinger

On Thursday, December 17th, the Fixed on Fiction Book Group met to discuss Franny & Zooey by J.D. Salinger. Here is a summary courtesy of Goodreads-

The short story, Franny, takes place in an unnamed college town and tells the tale of an undergraduate who is becoming disenchanted with the selfishness and inauthenticity she perceives all around her.
The novella,
Zooey, is named for Zooey Glass, the second-youngest member of the Glass family. As his younger sister, Franny, suffers a spiritual and existential breakdown in her parents' Manhattan living room -- leaving Bessie, her mother, deeply concerned -- Zooey comes to her aid, offering what he thinks is brotherly love, understanding, and words of sage advice.
Salinger writes of these works: "FRANNY came out in The New Yorker in 1955, and was swiftly followed, in 1957 by ZOOEY. Both stories are early, critical entries in a narrative series I'm doing about a family of settlers in twentieth-century New York, the Glasses. It is a long-term project, patently an ambiguous one, and there is a real-enough danger, I suppose that sooner or later I'll bog down, perhaps disappear entirely, in my own methods, locutions, and mannerisms. On the whole, though, I'm very hopeful. I love working on these Glass stories, I've been waiting for them most of my life, and I think I have fairly decent, monomaniacal plans to finish them with due care and all-available skill."

Franny & Zooey received very mixed reviews among our group with five thumbs up votes, two so-so votes, and three thumbs down. Here are some of the initial comments readers made while explaining their votes-

  • I loved Franny- that was an A+ for me. I didn’t like Zooey. I thought he treated his family disrespectfully and I didn’t like the philosophical rants that went on for three pages.
  • I loved the use of italics in dialogue- I could hear them talking. Very descriptive- I could picture them in their living room. Though provoking.
  • People are still phony and egotistical- some of these themes still apply today. Those long dissertations (Zooey) seemed to drag- but there was some good advice in there. It’s no wonder this story spoke to me when I was in college- I’m glad I got the chance to think about these characters again.
  • These smart aleck young people were too much for me. But I do think I would have thought differently about this if I had read it in college.
  • Thumbs down…but I am glad I read it. My lungs were hurting to read about all that smoking! I didn’t like the family dynamic although I did enjoy the writing.
  • I loved the writing. I’m so sad I didn’t find this earlier in my life. I liked how Salinger set the story up like a play and I loved the eccentric, dysfunctional family.
  • I didn’t finish this one. I loved Catcher in the Rye, but I was 14 when I read it. I didn’t care about these characters. It was a 200 page story that was 190 pages too long. But I came to the discussion anyway because I wanted to hear from the people who loved it- what am I missing?
  • I really liked it and I was excited to read it again. Books are not always about relating to the characters- his writing is fascinating.

Other thoughts-

  • A lot of this is still very contemporary. Show biz kids, having a neurotic mother…
  • I pictured Grey Gardens here- they were pretty off the chart themselves.
  • This was like the opposite of a Grisham novel. Similar to My Dinner with Andre- not much action happening.
  • Knowing that this originally appeared in installments as a weekly article- I think that would have appealed to me more.
  • I liked a lot of the ideas- the Fat Lady, don’t look down on other people, etc. It made me stop and consider and wonder if I agreed or disagreed.
  • There was never any doubt that the Glass family loved each other. It’s the same thing that we see in kids who are embarrassed by their parents but still love them.
  • I think there’s a lot to be said for the age of the Salinger reader. I loved this in college but just liked it now. But when I think back to my college experience it makes me enjoy the book more as it feels nostalgic.

And a few notes from a reader who wrote in her response to F&Z-

  • This was my second time reading Franny and Zooey, and I loved it just as much this time as the first. I never cease to be struck by how efficiently Salinger gets across the essence of his characters, here the eccentric Glass family, most prominently, Franny, Zooey, and Bessie.
  • First a comment on the total length of these two works. At 200 pages, it's easy to think they're a quick read, and both times I've read them, I've had to adjust that expectation. I don't like Franny and Zooey when I try to read it/them as a quick read. When I adjust my expectation and take it more slowly, my attitude shifts. In contrast, last weekend I read & listened to Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men in order to help my grandson, a high school freshman, with an essay on it. Even on audio, it tops out at 3 hours 11 minutes, and it sat well with me to read/listen to it in just a couple of sittings in one day. (Gary Sinise as narrator is terrific, reads the characters spot on.)  So, when I picked up Franny and Zooey, having forgotten how that went the first time I read it, I thought it was another afternoon's read and couldn't figure out why I really wasn't liking it, not getting into it. Then I remembered how much better it goes down taken slowly, and I settled in. 
  • For me, Zooey is just a delight to read on so many levels, but still best taken slowly. I generally like to read short stories and novellas in as close to one sitting as possible, but I have to read Zooey across two or three days, about 50 pages at a time. 
  • For me, the "what it's about" in Franny isn't that enjoyable, but how Salinger conveys Franny's ennui, disillusionment, and disdain for her college milieu, reminiscent of Holden Caulfield's alienation from what he calls phoniness, is exquisite. When I'm reading Franny, I want to extricate myself from her discomfort, not only of the things she describes but from her dinner with Lane. I take it that I'm experiencing Salinger's genius at conveying that sensation. In another time, I would have disliked the story itself for that. Even understanding that Zooey is projecting her inner dissatisfaction on everything around her, it still makes me squirm. I find myself wanting out, especially out of that awkward date with Lane.
  • I love the writing in Zooey. The humor, the scenes between Zooey and Bessie are a stitch, and the way Salinger brings in so much of the Glass family back story in so few words, I find amazing. It's seamless. 
  • Essentially though I like the way Salinger cuts to the chase about spiritual materialism, seeking ego gratification through spiritual practice, (as described by Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche in Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism) via Franny's breakdown and the talks between her and Zooey about The Way of the Pilgrim and the Jesus prayer. It could have just been one those pretentious discussions about philosophy and religion college students have with each other or, in this case, with an older sibling, but there was a deeper undercurrent. As wacky and dysfunctional as the Glass family can be, they clearly do love each other; they're all traumatized by the deaths of Seymour and the other brother; Bessie and Zooey really are desperate to help Franny; and Zooey, despite what seems like a callous persona, really does have the depth to reach her. When Zooey tells Franny that the "only religious thing you can do is act," (top of p. 197), I feel like he's really gotten to the bottom of things, and I have every confidence that he's reached her. For myself, I could take that little speech and substitute "write" for "act,"  put it where I'd see it every day, and get a motivational boost from it.
  • I have to mention that my favorite scene in the whole book is Zooey looking down five stories at a girl playing hide-and-seek with her dog. Afterwards, he says to himself, "…there are nice things in the world--and I mean nice things. We're all such morons to get sidetracked." 

This is just a small sampling of the comments made at our discussion. If you would like to share additional thoughts on Franny & Zooey, please feel free to do so in the comments section below.

Comments

Great write-up, Elizabeth. Thank you!

A fun discussion! I loved hearing everyone's thoughts. I had read Catcher in the Rye but had never gotten around to F&Z until now. It was a good pick.

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