Reviews

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

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aeggert75's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

mgp0701's review against another edition

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challenging slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I cannot believe we had to read this as high schoolers. It absolutely went over my head as a teenager - there was nothing in it that appealed to me, and an intense character study of a family perpetually trapped in grief and trying to continue life from that point on simply wasn't something I could fathom or "relate to". But Salinger's writing is stellar, and I love how he describes things. There's still a lot that goes over my head now; most of the religious philosophy, I read without much hope of understanding it deeply. But I don't think it's actually necessary to have an encyclopedic knowledge of Epictetus to appreciate this novel. The heart of it is found in the dynamic between each member of the Glass family, including those who never appear on the page during the course of the actually story.

annacah's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

trilobite's review against another edition

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Things I didn’t know before reading this book: “Zooey” is a diminutive of “Zachary”, the Jesus Prayer of all things plays a significant role in this book, and the Glass family is a recurring cast of characters in Salinger’s stories.

Last year I tried to read Salinger’s collection of short stories called Nine Stories and I hated the first story so much that I put the book back on my shelf and read no further. Turns out, the main character in that first story is the oldest brother to Franny and Zooey.

Franny and Zooey was published in 1961. They are the youngest siblings in the eccentric Glass family, a family with an unusual focus on religious philosophies. All of the Glass children were child prodigies who took part in a radio show called, “It’s a Wise Child” where they entertained audiences with their considerable knowledge. Franny is now 20 years old and attending an unnamed college. Zooey is 25 years old and lives at home with his parents in their Upper East Side apartment in New York City and works as an actor.

Franny has recently read The Way of the Pilgrim, a book published in 1884 about a Russian man who learns from a monk how to pray without ceasing by continually repeating the Jesus prayer (“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me”). When practiced correctly this prayer can become self-perpetuating, and bring joy, peace, and illumination to the practitioner.

Franny is disgusted with rampant egoism in academia, and without directly disclosing it to the reader, we realize that Franny is trying to practice the Jesus Prayer. Franny becomes ill while visiting her boyfriend and is delivered to her parent's apartment where she appears to be having a mental breakdown of sorts. Zooey realizes that she's trying to practice the Jesus Prayer, and he brutally questions her motives, accusing her of substituting the prayer for her daily duties, and using it to try to shelter herself from the egotism of others, instead of accepting people as they are.

Things I liked about this book: There is a lot of dialogue in this book which moves the story along at a pleasantly fast clip, the role that the Jesus Prayer played in the book surprised me and kept me interested to see what Salinger was going to do with it. I like this quote from Franny who is lamenting the absence of wisdom in academia:

“I don’t think it would have all got me quite so down if just once in a while-- just once in a while-- there was at least some polite little perfunctory implication that knowledge should lead to wisdom, and that if it doesn’t, it’s just a disgusting waste of time! But there never is! You never hear any hints dropped on a campus that wisdom is supposed to be the goal of knowledge. You hardly ever even hear the word 'wisdom' mentioned!”

Things I didn’t like about this book: I didn’t like the character of Zooey, he peppers every other sentence with “goddamn”, he is verbally abusive to his mother, frequently calling her “stupid” and “fatty”, and yet somehow, he is considered by most readers to be the hero of the story for the advice he gives Franny?

Overall, I'm mostly repulsed by this book (or maybe repulsed by the character of Zooey?), but also, I'm a tad obsessed with it (because of Franny and The Jesus Prayer).