Rating: 
Summary: Two beautiful, empathic stories
Review: I love RHTRBC - it catches so many little details about people, it's kind of funny in the way reality is, it's as warm and empathic as Salinger generally is. I love Seymour too, although I'd be less likely to recommend it, I think it takes a certain kind of pensive reader who has absolutely no concern for "the story." It's the kind of thing I wish I'd get paid for writing, yet doubt I could pull off so well as easily as I think, an unstructured memoir, sort of stuttering in places about an obsession you can't quite get out, will never be happy with how you express it because it's not all yours to express. I do wonder if the author means for Seymour to be seen as the flawless near-angel his brother sees him as, or is it more a study in the effects he (the admiration and his suicide) had on his brother, but even if he meant the former, I always settle on viewing it as the latter.
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Summary: Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters
Review: The character Buddy Glass is just the coolest book character there is!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Total junk
Review: Totally insane! Don't expect Holden Caulfield, he's nowhere to be found. This book is just whacked out beyond belief. It's really nuts. Salinger has gone crazy and there's no plot no humor no reality. Re-read Catcher in the Rye and don't waste your time with this.
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Summary: in Salinger's lesser-known work lies his true genius
Review: Think what you would most like to be reading, right now... then write it! (seymour, an introduction) I can't, because the most beautiful, or not even beautiful, the most powerful english work I have ever read has already been written: "Seymour, an introduction". The rambling, so very human narrator, in awe of his brother, brings us straight into true human feelings, grief, and confusion. But many authors can make us identify with the narrator; what is different in this book is its wisdom. Not only does it draw us in: it keeps us, teaches us, moves us, and leaves us with new vision for life and for art. If you can appreciate it, I would recommend this book as highly as I am able to.
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Summary: Salinger's Masterpiece
Review: Each of us, as readers, has a book (at least one, maybe more) that we can honestly say has changed our life, or at very least our outlook on life. For me, and many other Salingerians, this is the one. This book, I feel, is Salinger's masterpiece, more so even than the timeless "Catcher in the Rye", this book captures so much of what Salinger has to say about people, poetry, spirituality, and life itself in all its complexity. These stories are two of (Salinger's narrative alter-ego) Buddy Glass's tales of his older brother Seymour. In them we see first the gross misunderstanding of Seymour by his shallow in-laws (brilliantly characterized), then the full and knowing true understanding of Seymour by his brother. It is a truly touching and magnificent piece of literature by one of the 20th century's greats
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Summary: A truly exquisite rendition of the human condition
Review: This, above all of Salinger's works, depicts that ineffable quality of existence known as human suffering. Of all authors within his paradigm, Salinger truly understands those qualities within humans which are normally termed genius and the suffering that can accompany them. More so than in previous works, Salinger waxes philisophical and begins to explore Eastern philosophy in a manner that makes such complex concepts tangible. Case in point is "The Zen of Street Marbles". In summary, "This book rocks my world!". It falls very high on my must read list :
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Summary: Seymour: An introduction completes modernism
Review: The style of Salinger's Seymour: An introduction is
modernistic in such a way that it could be said to complete or fulfill modernism. The project of modernism has, among
many other things, been to explore subjectivity, and it is
my humble opinion that Salinger does this more subjectively
than any other hitherto. Thank you for your attention.
Rating: 
Summary: an ADHD nightmare if you don't love the Glass family!!!!!!!!
Review: This book is actually a melding of two stories which delve deeper into the history of the Glass family, who was introduced earlier in Salinger's works."Raise High" followed the adventures of Buddy as he prepared to attend the wedding of his brother, Seymour. However, Seymour fails to show up at the wedding, and the rest of the story continues as Buddy converses and invites the family and friends of the bride over to his house to escape from the hot day. Although this was a good story that brought other things to light about the Glass family, it was no way comparable to "Franny and Zooey" or the short story that first introduced us to Seymour, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish". "Seymour: An Introduction" is a paradoxical title for the next story, because as mentioned in the previous paragraph, the reader has already become fairly familiar with the character of Seymour. The reader follows Buddy's mind as he describes his elder brother whom he deeply admires, but it almost feels like you're stuck in the mind of an ADHD. He jumps from topic to topic and the transitions are almost impossible to follow - I found my mind wandering quite a bit with this one. If I hadn't already had an interest in the Glass family, I probably would not have finished this story. It was long-winded and not very thematic. It does, however, bring the reader closer to the Glass family and give insight into the background of the different characters presented. It is also worthwhile to mention that one should definitely read Salinger's first two stories regarding the Glass family, "A Perfect Day For Bananafish" and "Franny and Zooey" in order to gain an interest in the family before embarking on "Raise High" and "Seymour". Without having gained a love for the characters first, it will be difficult to enjoy and understand these stories at all.
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Summary: Super Unpleasant!
Review: For some reason, probably because I'm an idiot, I read this after reading Franny and Zooey. I had already read everyone else Salinger wrote and decided to finish off his career. His nine stories are much better, especially when compared to this. Compared to this, a kick in the crotch seems nice. Like Franny and Zooey, these two stories are about the Glass Family, which is made up of very intelligent siblings that used to be on a radio quiz show. Salinger's style here is not simplistic and lucid like in Catcher in the Rye, but instead is pretentious and convoluted. It's as though he took everything about Catcher in the Rye that was good and did the opposite. The narrative is extreme stream of conscious, almost at the level of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. I don't remember what the premise of the story is because it was barely there. I know it has something to do with Seymour's marriage, but the stories are more about the characters than their setting. However, since the writing is so unpleasant this makes it very difficult to read. I don't recommend this book to anyone and thinking about it makes me feel bad inside in a way I imagine one would feel after doing something terrible, like killing a man or breaking a prized possession. The reason for the latter maybe because the time spent reading this book was wasted. I gained nothing from the experience except a hatred for these characters who, if they ever make the mistake of physically manifesting themselves in my presence, I will beat with such fervency that they will be sent into a coma from which they will never recover.
Rating: 
Summary: Better than, by all rights, it ought to be
Review: This was my first exposure to Salinger, and I was suitably impressed. "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters" is a charming and sometimes poignant little anecdote which struck me as being a little Wodehousian in its style. The little old man alone is enough to make it a candidate for masterpiecehood. "Seymour" is, as advertised, a "bouquet of very early-blooming parentheses," full of one after another of what could be called digressions were it not for the absence of a main point from which to digress. But, for all its rambliness and self-indulgence (something along the lines of Nabokov's "Pale Fire," I think), it's hard to put down. If there's a weakness, it's that both stories seem to end a little prematurely. You're reading along and then suddenly the story's over, leaving you with the impression that, had you not been paying attention, you could easily have read right past the ending without noticing it. Overall, though, this is an excellent book. I managed to escape the near-inevitable high school reading of "Catcher in the Rye," but after reading this book I've decided to go back and correct that omission.
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