Did J.D. Salinger's work change you? Change how you felt about reading?

Wow. I didn't hear he died.

Twitter told me, but I made sure there was a link.

Believe it or not, I have never read anything he wrote.

Never? Do you think it would be something you'd add to your to-read list, Janet?

Nope. Read "Catcher in the Rye" in high school and enjoyed it. It wasn't an epiphany. I didn't go as far as one of my friends did and think Holden Caulfield was selfish and childish, but I didn't think of him as a sympathetic character either. I never got around to any of the others.

Ah Nippy Katz. I like to think that the books that are epiphanies are as individual as we are. Salinger clicked for so many people, I'm sure it made an impact on those who feel this in some deeply personal way. I'd love to hear from them... just as I'd love to see a list of those "epiphany pieces."

I thought Salinger had a nice ability with character and dialogue. I don't care much for short stories so I didn't read much else, even though I had plenty of opportunity since my parents took the New Yorker when I was a kid.

I'd say it was Frank Portman's King Dork that did it for me...

King Dork:

“The title of Catcher in the Rye comes from a misquoted poem by Robert Burns, which Holden Caulfied elaborates into a mystical fantasy about saving children from falling off a cliff. There are all these kids playing in a field of rye, and he stands guard ready to catch them if they stray from the field. A lot of people have found this to be a very moving metaphor for the experience of growing up, or anxiety about the loss of innocence, or the Mysterious Dance of Life. Or any random thing, really.

To use HC’s own terminology, it has always seemed pretty goddam phony and all to me. Fantasies about Jane Gallagher’s preppie ass? Check – even I have those. Fantasies about twisting yourself into a tortured symbol of the precious authenticity of youth? I don’t think so. It’s the kind of thing you’d make up to impress an AP teacher. And the AP teachers are duly impressed with it, of course. Suckers.

The brilliance of it, though, is that the people in the Catcher Cult manage to see themselves as everybody in the scenario all at once. They’re the cute, virtuous kids playing in the rye, and they also like to see themselves as the troubled but famous misfit adolescent who dreams of preserving the kids’ innocence by force and who turns out to have been right all along. And they also like to see themselves as the grown-up moralistic busy-body with the kid-sized butterfly net who is charged with keeping all the kids on the premises, no matter what. Somehow, they don’t realize you can’t root for them all.”

Haven't read it, Dina G. But I'm glad you shared what did ring true for you from that.

I have not read "King Dork" either, Julia and Dina. Obviously it owes much to Salinger. Another current young adult author who appears to owe much to Salinger would probably be John Green. I recommend his books "Paper Towns" and "An abundance of Katherines." obviously most adults will not know who I am talking about, but many between the ages of 16 and 19 will. He does explore the isolation of being different as a teen in his works, echoing the Caulfield character, and the oddness and contradictory nature of the adult world that teens are entering.

The one that got me was Franny and Zooey. For better or for worse, it made me realize that you have to put up with a lot of junk in this world even if you're the only one in the room who gives a hoot - or who gets it. You can't let it get to you and you can't stop caring.

Zooey reminded me of my own younger brother a great deal, and I think reading this book made me feel even closer to him. It's one of my all-time favorites.

Diana, for better for worse or maybe for both? *grin* Does your brother know that about the book?

It's one of his favorites, too!

many authors have changed my life, Julia. I have to be honest, Salinger is probably not one of them. From Salinger's generation, Vonnegut is probably the one who impacted me most with his bitter and ironic understanding of human failings and foibles. Going back a few years, Steinbeck changed my life, surely with "Grapes of Wrath" and "East of Eden". Steinbeck wrote with a deep understanding of human nature, and with great compassion for the victims and downtrodden of our world. Other american writers who changed my life, Mark Twain certainly changed my life with the "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", many people would share that declaration. Singlehandedly, Twain created the great american theme that Salinger explored in "Catcher in the Rye": the loss of innocence.

Ursula Le Guin impacted me greatly way back in my early teens with her young adult novels such as the Earthsea series. it came as a revelation, you can write for youth without condescending or talking down. My passion for her work continues into adulthood, with her fine science ficiton novel "The left Hand of Darkness" and her excellent recent historical novel about the founding of Rome, "Lavinia".

"Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte. "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. The entire body of work by William Shakespeare, all the plays, all the sonnets. Changed our culture? Shakespeare created much of English speaking culture. he helped create our very language itself.

I think that Salinger can probably be credited with knocking down a wall. But his legendary reclusiveness (explored by the James Earl Jones character in the Kevin Kostner movie "Field of Dreams") handicapped his impact on culture. In some ways, he may be important for pointing the way forward for future authors rather than for his own works. The adult nature of some of the lead characters of current young adult literature may be partially credited to him, though it should be admitted that Holden Caulfield does not seem like a real person to me, or a very adult person either.

I read this, but I didn't particularly like it. I think it was an important book, but just not my thing.