Nine Stories

Rating:
Summary: Some Good stories, but quite a let down overall
Review: I think that some of the stories in this book were very good, the best being A perfect Day for Banana Fish, but after the first 3 stories, it went down hill. After reading Catcher in the Rye, I was hooked on salinger, but these stories were not short stories, they just got longer and longer, and some of them I found hard to finish because they became either too complicated or they just lost my interest. An okay book, but I know that this definatly isnt Salinger's greatest works.

Rating:
Summary: The best book ever.
Review: This is hands down the best book ever. I have not read a book in five years, the day after I finished this book. If you are beautiful woman and share my opinion please email [e-mail].

Rating:
Summary: What would we do without bananafish?
Review: Ok, I'll say from the start that I am hopelessly devoted to "A Perfect Day for A Bananafish". I have it almost memorized and I will even admit that I almost cried when I read the ending. Then relationships that Salinger creates between his adult and children characters is so typical - you can almost see the four-year old that you know saying the exact same thing. And just imagining Seymour Glass going away from a charming conversation with a child to the depression of his hotel room really affected me. It's hard to explain, but Salinger does that with many of his stories. God bless him!

Rating:
Summary: salinger's writing is uncanny and absolutely brilliant!!!
Review: Salinger is truly gifted. Each story will blow you away. Teddy,the last story,is the best short story i have ever read in my entire life! It says so much about life and death. it starts out as a simple narrative and then just takes your head off! unparralled! People that have not read Salinger have and are missing out. Yeah,these reviews seem too much, but i promise you if you give Salinger a try, he will change your life. This guy truly had a gift,and no one has ever reached human beings as deep and as honestly as J.D.Salinger......enough said!

Rating:
Summary: An eternal classic...
Review: Having only know JD from Catcher, which was on a school curriculum list, I picked up an old UK version of Nine Stories, not realizing what book I was reading as it was entitled "For Esme-with Love and Squalor." I now realize I'm reading one of the great classics. I try to keep abreast of good, new literature to read but now I wonder why I don't pick up an oldie more often. There's a REASON they have the reputation they do! No more struggling thru English Patient's for me.... there's so much to be found on the classics' shelf!!

Rating:
Summary: For J.D., with Love and Squalor
Review: Even the story that I like least in this book I reread every couple of months or so. A collection of short stories published previously in magazines (esp. The New Yorker), Nine Stories fills in many of the blanks left by the other books. So you read Catcher in the Rye in high school and want to read more Salinger now that you're older? Read this. Then read everything else the man has written. Go to your library and find microfiche copies of his unpublished stories and read those too.

Rating:
Summary: The Bedside Salinger!
Review: To all those people who went: 'wow!' when they gave their eyes the gift of 'Catcher in the Rye', this book is a must! It is the perfect item to join the lamp, the alarm clock and the glass of water on the bedside table and can be the highlight of your journey home on the bus every evening. I myself, a 17 year old, British Salinger fan who wishes that New York was nearer, would go as far to say that 'Bananafish' is a classic. The ending shocked me and made me think 'Thank God for J.D!'. If you are a fan of Salinger's then take advantage of Amazon and buy this Goddam piece of history.

(P.S. If you think I am being over-the-top about all of this, just get the book and then apologise).

Rating:
Summary: Who says it is an arm?
Review: Stop this! This instant! Stop. Stop. Just listen to him. Stop commenting. You all prove his points. Don't you see? Stop the misguided glorification. Stop the petulant bickering. Stop it. Vomit up the apple. That is the message in this book. We all wake up when we die, right? So stop it. Please. Jerome David Salinger is not Christ. Seymore is not Christ. Buddy is not saying they are. But they see Christ in everyone. The fat lady, remember? Shine your shoes for the fat lady.

Rating:
Summary: A reader and an apple eater
Review: The bookend stories were the best. But Salinger is certainly not the American Borges as some have claimed. John Cheever, Richard Yates, Sherwood Anderson; these were great short story writers. The attraction is to read these stories for some hints about the Glass family. I find something disturbing about this family or more on target, the reaction of readers to the Glass family. Seymour could clip his toenails and readers would find in this activity some symbolic comment on The Eight Fold Path or, perhaps, the essence of Zen in the manner Seymour tosses the clippings into an ashtray. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Sometimes you don't like a story because it's weak and not because you missed the East-Salinger Symbolism.

I found it amusing that all nine stories repeatedly used cigarettes as plot propellants. Was J. D. under grant from Lucky Strikes? Whenever Salinger wants you to know he's about to be prophetic he uses a cigarette as a harbinger of the coming epiphany. His characters handle cigarettes, smoke them, and move ashtrays about and, on two occasions, even handle the contents of the ashtrays. A cigarette can be a great prop, but not for nine straight stories.

Rating:
Summary: THE BEST OF SALINGER
Review: I love this collection of short stories even better than "Catcher" - they are so varied. Of course, "Bananafish" - so sweet and off the wall - is my favorite, but the others are great. "The Laughing Man" will make you cry and "De-Daumier-Smith" is a hoot! I've read these stories over and over - my copy is falling apart. If you liked "Catcher", you'll love "Nine Stories"!