Against obsenity

Looking back, one can now discern at least four phases in Salinger’s career. His early stories generally portray characters that feel estranged and marooned because of World War II. The Catcher in the Rye and Salinger’s attempt in that book to deal with estrangement and isolation through a Zen-inspired awakening and lonely benevolence represent his second phase. The third phase, seen in Nine Stories involves bringing together the principles of Zen art and …showed first 75 words of 1236 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1236 total…motif, and episode that is as masterful as anything I n contemporary literature. Salinger fights obscenity with an amazing and divine mixture of vulgarity, existential anguish, an it does this through a style that moves the narrative effortly along a colloquial surface that suddenly parts to reveal the terror and beauty of the spiritual drama that Holden enacts. It may be Salinger’s only novel, but it is still one of the best we have.