Rating: 
Summary: good good good stuff
Review: i kinda cheated with this book out of my complete attention, because i read each story in between a novel, and the novels i read are quite striking in contrast to the short stories of this book. I enjoyed the book though, but not as much as i potentially could have. i probably enjoyed the `laughing man`, and `down at the dinghy` most, but i dont know what all the fuss with a `perfect day for bananafish` is about.
Rating: 
Summary: What's New?
Review: The book Nine Stories, is repetative in its theme's. There is no sense of digression, only confussion. Each of the stories has a main theme in commom which basically sums up to be around negativity; there is always something happeneing to make the story very dissappointing Or negative. Someone dies, someone gets hurt, something bad happens to affect someone else.
If I was to really summarize these stories as a whole, i would say that it is a very long poem. I love to write poems and i get that feeling from each story.
Rating: 
Summary: i never saw such a bunch of apple eaters
Review: salinger is a master at mannerisms, cynicism, dialogue, and symbolism. i finished this book months ago but find the stories still haunt me everyday, unlike any other book i have ever read. i will be rereading it many, many times.
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Summary: J.D. Salinger's Golden Period
Review: Some have heard about "22 Stories", some 2000 copies which were printed by 'Raintree' in Portland, Oregan, so the facts go. The stories comprise of material previously published in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Atlantic Monthly, etc. In these stories, you meet Holden's older brother, Vincent Caulfield, playing marbles with Seymour Glass, the only link between Salinger's two famous families. You read a third person narration of Holden's mishaps at Grand Central Station, a well remembered scene in Catcher in the Rye, as if this new narrator was looking over Holden's shoulder the whole time. It is a blessing in print, however paltry in quantity.For the rest of us, sadly, we only have Nine Stories to warm our hearts and keep us company when we fall to sleep. "For Esme, with Love and Squalor" is perhaps the most well loved, about a young soldier's intimate, witty, funny, and lonely conversation with a little precocious girl and her silent younger brother. Promises are exchanged, and time passes and proves generous. My personal favorite is "De Daumier Smith's Blue Period". A young self-absorbed and arrogant art student moves to Canada to work as an instructor at a school, only to discover the 'institution' is merely an old Japanese couple. He tells them that he's related to Picasso (hence, the "Blue Period")and fails in some very humorous scenes to be personable to them. He ends up falling in love with one of his students (he only has three, whom he corresponds to through the mail). Sister Irma sends lovely water-colors his way and "Mr. Smith" imagines Sister Irma as a young 18 year old nun, ready to be 'discovered.' Smith writes a rather impulsive letter to her, which results badly, causing Smith entertain a self-absorbed role as the hopeless bachelor. He gets dressed up for a decadent night by himself, only to come home to an image behind glass that may or may not have been only in his head. Each story is intimate, some of them simply profound. Salinger followed his character Seymour's own advice to Buddy: Imagine a story you would most want to read, and write it your damn self. We are all so grateful and glad that he did.
Rating:
Summary: A Superb Collection of Glimpses into Life
Review: What do you make of a collection of stories that includes lines such as, "The thought was forced on me that no matter how coolly or sensibly or gracefully I might one day learn to live my life, I would always at best be a visitor in a garden wooden dummy-deity standing by in a marked-down rupture truss."? If you are at all like me, the answer is that J.D. Salinger has put together a superlative collection of short stories, all a little surreal but all shedding great insights into human life. If there is a theme linking these stories it seems to be deceit - often self-deception. In perhaps the best of the stories (the only one not previously published), "De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period", a young American returning from Paris, where he has grown up, is so delusioned with the American art scene (and his life) that he invents a new life for himself: Someone who's parents were friends of Picasso, somebody who's paintings already adorn the houses of the rich and famous - someone who is 10 years older than he really is. This character then comes to life placed against the foil of the "inscrutable" Yoshoto couple who run a correspondence course in art. Like all of the stories, we are treated to exquisite detail of the deception being played out - almost unknowingly - until it comes crashing down on us, sometimes fatally. You can read the entire first story in the book, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" online and I would strongly advise you to do that. This story encapsulates some of the feeling of separation, ambiguity and surrealness that permeates all of the stories. A number of the stories are focussed very much on childhood and adolescence - obviously something dealt with in Salinger's most famous work "Catcher in the Rye". Here we find Salinger at his best - perhaps the sense of loneliness at that age is easiest to write about? Often with collections of short stories there are weak and strong ones. In this case, though, the standard is very very high throughout. As I mentioned I found "De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period" to be the best but "The Laughing Man" and "Down at the Dinghy" are right up there with it. This is an ideal collection of short stories to dip into again and again and again.
Rating:
Summary: This is one of my three favorite books of all time.
Review: This book of short stories is as good as any Salinger out there, including the often worshipped "Catcher in the Rye." There are so many more levels of life shown in this book. Most people remember "Bananafish" since it is the first story, is very witty and has Seymour Glass in it. My favorite is "De Daumier Smith's Blue Period," which is acutely hilarious, but also nails a process we all go through of rationalizing and getting honest. Of course, they are all great. Maybe the sweetest and most intriguing is "Teddy," which I always think of as the next jumping off place for J.D. Salinger, and leaves me feeling hopeful. If you only read one Salinger book in your life, pick this one.
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Summary: Nine Stories Review
Review: J. D. Salinger's Nine Stories is a compilation of humourous, ironic, and somewhat strange short stories. For example, A Perfect Day for a Bananafish tells the story of a young man named Seymour Glass. During the story, the reader might think that Seymour is slightly odd, but nothing more. At the end of the story, however, a surprise twist is thrown in whenever Seymour decides to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head. This type of ending is not expected at all.
Also, Salinger's writing style throughout these stories closely resembles that of The Catcher in the Rye. Many of the same actions and symbols are used in both books. For example, The Catcher in the Rye uses the Natural History Museum as a symbol of elements that are unchanging in the world. The Natural History Museum is also mentioned in Salinger's short story Laughing Man. Smoking occurs heavily in both books, as well as vulgar language. Holden Caulfield uses the expression "goddam" frequently in The Catcher in the Rye, and many characters in all of Salinger's short stories do also. Another element of Salinger's writing style shown in Nine Stories is the sarcastic feel to his writing. The majority of the characters in all nine of the stories are cynical and critical, hence setting the tone of the pieces of work. For example, Salinger's slanted and snarl connotative diction is evident in his description of Boo Boo Tannenbaum in the story Down at the Dinghy, stating that "she was a small, almost hipless girl of twenty-five, with styleless, colorless, brittle hair pushed back behind her ear."
Nine Stories is delightful and I would recommend this book to anyone. The stories may not be suitable for children due to references of drugs, alcohol, and suicide. An interesting array of stories and situations keeps the reader interested, and at just over 300 pages and approximately 33 pages a story, the book is an easy and enjoyable read.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not great
Review: I first read this collection in high school, about 1960, and I may have been the only one in my Contemporary Lit class who didn't regard the author as an unqualified genius. I decided forty years was long enough to wait before re-reading it . . . and while, with more education and a lot more "life experience" under my belt, I certainly appreciate these stories more than I did then, I'm still not really in love with Salinger. Especially "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," which everyone seems to regard as the perfect modern American short story -- sorry, it doesn't do a thing for me. Seymour is just rather ... I think, not tragic. On the other hand, "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" and "For Esme -- with Love and Squalor" are beautifully done character portraits. And "De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period" is flat falling-down funny. The others fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum for me. Salinger certainly has a knack for dialogue, though some of the conversations in these stories seem funny now simply because they're written in fifty-year-old idiom. And, of course, nineteen-year-old characters then seem far more naive than fifteen-year-olds of today. But even making those allowances, for modern short fiction I consider William Trevor, Ellen Gilchrist, and Frederick Barthelme to be far more talented.
Rating:
Summary: A Perfect Day for Salinger
Review: Even after decades, this is still appealing to people of all ages. I'm a teenager and I have always been more interested in reading more modern-day novels and short stories, but J.D. Salinger is among one of the few exceptions I have been willing to broaden my horizons for. "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" is by far my favorite of all the nine stories. There is a part where this little girl is talking to Seymour and she is wearing a canary-yellow swimsuit. Seymour commented on it, saying, "I've always loved that color of blue on a bathing suit," and the little girl responded with, "This is yellow!" and Seymour said, "So it is." Eeek! The little things like that are what make me love Salinger and his writing so very much. Sorry that this was not much of a review with a plot summary or anything, but trust me, read this and you'll love it!!!
Rating:
Summary: some David Copperfield kind of stuff..
Review: Whew. Salinger did it again. Was there really any doubt? The man is amazing. I have a 4000 word essay based upon how Salinger transforms the ordinary, and Nine Stories is a testament to his extraordinary writing skill. The first and last stories left me rather breathless. And everything in between was equally amazing. I'll forever be in awe of how Salinger can take the simplest encounter or conversation and turn it into something that makes me think about my entire way of life.
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