J.D. Salinger, R.I.P.

The author of "The Catcher in the Rye" has died at the age of 91. The Washington Post/Associated Press obit is here.

From the New York Times e-mail:

Mr. Salinger's literary reputation rests on a slender but
enormously influential body of published work: the novel "The
Catcher in the Rye," the collection "Nine Stories" and two
compilations, each with two long stories about the fictional
Glass family: "Franny and Zooey" and "Raise High the Roof
Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction."

Like many suffering adolescents, I read "Catcher" more than once. The first time, I was taken by its sadness; it took a second reading when I was a little older to see the humor.

I also went on to "Franny and Zooey," "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters," and "Nine Stories," which I remember loving most of all. But Salinger went into seclusion, the stories stopped coming, and I moved on to other writers and other personal obsessions.

Still, there was a time when I would have read anything with Salinger's name on it. And now I want to go back to "Catcher," to remember what it felt like to read it when I was young.