Franny and Zooey
Book description
"Perhaps the best book by the foremost stylist of his generation" (New York Times), J. D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey collects two works of fiction about the Glass family originally published in The New Yorker.
"Everything everybody does is so--I don't know--not wrong, or even mean, or even stupid necessarily.…
Why read it?
3 authors picked Franny and Zooey as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Franny and Zooey are the two youngest siblings in the Glass family. Originally, “Franny” was published as a short story and “Zooey” as a novella, both of them being published later in one book.
In “Franny”, the protagonist visits her college boyfriend who speaks about his experiences in great detail. But Franny increasingly becomes disenchanted with the ideals of accomplishment he speaks about.
The way “Zooey” opens is memorable: he is reading a letter from his brother Buddy who has written about their eldest brother Seymour’s suicide many years ago. Meanwhile, Franny has entered a state of distress. The book…
From Farah's list on growing up in unusual ways.
One of the most familiar mid-century novels to depict an odd, American family, I first read this book as a sophomore in college. A young woman I was dating had a copy in her room and let me keep reading it when she went to class. I finished it before she came back. Franny and Zooey Glass are siblings that grow up in a family of troubled geniuses. After her first semester at college, younger sister Franny has a breakdown and returns home, questioning her future in acting. Zooey, her older brother tries to convince her of her talent…
From Joe's list on complicated families.
Catcher in the Rye gets all the love, but, for me, Franny and Zooey is J.D. Salinger’s masterpiece. I was immediately hooked by his rich characters, his flowing language, his extraordinary ear for dialogue, his effortless ability as a storyteller. His compassion most of all. These two interweaving tales of the Glass family settled into my soul and left an imprint that has never gone away. In the finale, Buddy Glass’s classic tale of Salinger’s “Fat Lady” just might alter your view of the universe, and of yourself, as surely as it did Franny’s.
From J.M.'s list on that shift our perception of reality.
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