Dream Catcher : A Memoir

Rating:
Summary: Poor J.D. Salinger
Review: I've just read three books on Salinger, one a biography by Paul Alexander and the others memoirs by Joyce Maynard and now Margaret Salinger. Paul Alexander suggests that Salinger's reclusiveness was nothing more than a ploy to get attention, but you clearly don't get that impression from Maynard and Margaret Salinger, two people who knew Salinger intimately.

I very much enjoyed Joyce Maynard's book, which I thought was insightful and brilliantly written. I expected more from Margaret's book, thinking she would offer even more insights. After all, I thought, Maynard knew Salinger for 18 months or so; Margaret Salinger has known him for a lifetime.

But Margaret's book is mostly about herself, and she offers us excrutiating details on that life. Did she think anyone would really care that her brother's first words were "Ba Ba"? Did she need to reprint in full the text of her childhood notes to friends and boyfriends? How about those trivial and distracting footnotes all over the place? And I thought much of her writing -- praised elsewhere on this message board -- was pretentious and contrived. (Charybdis this and Scylla that.)

Poor J.D. Salinger. Despite Paul Alexander's suggestions, what Salinger clearly wants and wanted (in his quirky way) was privacy. What he gets are a bunch of disgruntled family members and friends trading in on their connections to him. So why did I read the book if I seem to be suggesting we respect Salinger's privacy? Good question.

Rating:
Summary: Blah...blah...blah...
Review: If you are looking for information about the infamous JD Salinger- don't read this book. You'll be disappointed and disillusioned, as I was after finishing. If you would like to read about his daughter's privileged, yet routinely screwed up life, then read on; because that is all you'll find in here. While there are occassional insights into Salinger's (the MAN) life and motivations, most of what Peggy writes about is a critique and ctiticism of his choices and lifestyle. A classic example of blaming your parents for your own f-'d up life, if you ask me.
I feel sorry for JD that he may have read this during his life and realized what an unhappy and unloving daughter he really had.
The bitter irony exists that she would have never sold this book if it wasn't for her father, (who wants to know about Peggy Salinger's life?) and yet she tears him down page after page.
I would probably buy a book written by his son, Matthew, just to see if his recollections are similiar or if Peggy stands alone.

Rating:
Summary: THE CATCHER AND THE SPY OR THE CATCHER OF THE WRY
Review: J. D. Salinger's daughter has written an in-depth psychological biography of her famous (or infamous) father. Margaret (then called "Peggy") drills the Iron Curtain surrounding her reclusive father and her life in his shadow.

Margaret has a gift for finding joy in many things; her account of her kindergarten class is singularly moving and one feels that the "circle" she lovingly described during this activity was a symbol of the "circles" she would later move in -- as daugher of a famous author, as a literati in her own "write," as her own identity. She manages to wring joy out of her horrendous boarding school years; she manages to infuse her readers with her naturally hopeful outlook.

J. D. Salinger's "signature" book, "The Catcher in the Rye" is an adult version of Peter Pan; Salinger's infamous protagonist Holden Caulfield is a self-admitted adultophobe who refuses to take responsibility for his actions or identify with adult persons. I didn't like Caulfield as a child and I certainly have not been able to like that character as an adult, either. In reading it in adulthood, one cannot help but wonder how much of Holden is really J. D. Salinger. Margaret provides some very interesting insights.

Salinger's treatment of author Joyce Maynard when the later was 18 was disgusting. He tried to control Maynard's life and it sounded as if he was generally taking advantage of her. In reading of this part of his life, one again sees glimpses of Caulfield. Salinger sought the company of a woman young enough to be his daughter and his treatment of her was singularly disgraceful.

This book is truly an eye-opener. It is a well researched biography and well worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: Really brings out the Hinkley in all of us.
Review: Most people prefer fiction in there non-fiction.
That the emperor has no clothes is not very interesting when you've pledged your loyalty to an adolescent panderer.
So what is one sopposed to do with this revalation?
I suggest, READ a book and GET a life.

She probably should haver saved this for when the old man snuffs it.

She can write beautifully sometimes. I hope she will turn to fiction, historical nonfiction, or tap into the same tree that yeilded so much sap for Mitch Albom.

Rating:
Summary: a wonderful book!
Review: Ms. Salinger provides us with a very good book, I shouldn't have to say more, but it would hardly suggest that anyone should read it. I regret that it was my own interest in her father that led me to the book. Franny and Zooey as a teenager and later RHTRBC and Seymour, an introduction, had been two of my most frequent gifts to new friends.

Well, my regret is simple, this book stands quite well on its own. Sure it was helpful to gain some insight into "The Mystery" But more important was how familiar this book was. Growing up and through northern New England a the same time and knowing the counterparts to many of her friends, I found myself quite at home. Forunately, my life was far less severe, on all counts. but the localized history and "60's" life were gifts. The greatest gift, of course, is the writing itself. Ms. Salinger is well aware of language and her craft does reflect that of her father. She has given me words to express what until now had eluded description. And the pictures she paints with her eloquence made page turning a pleasure.

Rating:
Summary: emotionally and thoughtfully written.
Review: This is unlike any "memoir" I've ever read. Margaret Salinger has included so much information here, historical, personal, and literary, it may be more than the average "kiss and tell" reader can fathom. The serious reader won't be disappointed. Margaret gives a bittersweet, yet balanced account of her childhood. Her childhood accounts show a real memory for the details, sounds, smells, and especially the visual beauty of life in the woods. She frames her father's development as a writer and links his work to events in his life. She has researched and explained her father's discomfort with his Jewish heritage .She frames it in the context of America anti-Semitism in the first half of this century. She tells of his restless search for transcendence from the pain of life with a series of fads. He eventually settles on a hodge-podge of Zen and Christian Science. All of life is fiction. (Except his needs!) Given the lengths to which her father's more unbalanced admirer's will go, she very wisely avoids discussing her current partner and lifestyle. It's clear she has discovered the happiness of the small things in life and is the kind of chaplain I would like to have. She's self-effacing and a real straight shooter. This honesty probably has cost her, but after her illnesses, her emotional needs, and finally, she herself became just another "illusion," she had lost her father long ago.