A review by kutreen
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

challenging informative reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book was complicated and often difficult for me to understand. Maybe an academic or someone who has studied religions, particularly Christianity, would understand better. This book is totally driven by dialogue between characters in a variety of "scenes" that take place in different locations:
a train stop, a restaurant, a bathroom, a living room, and two bedrooms.
Nothing takes place outside of these locations. The shortest scene is 10 pages, the average is perhaps 40, and the longest is I think about 65? The first chapter/section of the book is called "Franny," and it includes the first two scenes, at the
train station and the restaurant.
It's about 50 pages. The next section is titled "Zooey," includes all the other scenes, and is the rest of the book. There are very few divisions in the book, except between some scenes in the second chapter. It's so rambly, and the people are rambly. Although it often annoyed me, I also appreciated how honest the characters were, and normal people do ramble.

I will try to summarize what I think the main lessons of this book are:
[SPOILERS! Using the spoiler function didn't work around these bullet points!]
  • your family understands you and affects your adulthood more than you realize
  • knowing a lot about religion doesn't necessarily bring you peace; in fact, it can very well cause you to spiral
  • when you think a lot about religion and their messiahs, you may start to see a lot of people around you to be superficial, concerned with unimportant things. You may be repulsed by their ego. It is important to remember:
    • you have just as much ego as them. Yours is manifesting itself in your religious piety and judgment of others.
    • you might not fully understand the messiahs, as you might think you do
    • it's not bad to follow your passions and desires and callings, even though you might judge others for pursuing theirs. In fact, it would be wasteful not to. Jesus would want you to.
    • a huge part of being religious is detachment, which is the opposite of picking apart others for how superficial or dumb they are 
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