on sat 6 dec brendan mckennedy <the.tourist@mailexcite.com> wrote: > If anyone else feels this inexplicable draw toward Muriel--or even if > you don't--maybe > you could shed some light on this for me. well i love muriel. just by virtue of the fact that she loves seymour she wins me over. but i also love her because, as opposed to most of the glasses and the caulfields, she hasn't got her head in the clouds. she's not obsessed with, but concerned by, real, earthly, materialistic things like nail polish and dresses. i like that in her, because even though she has more depth than that; i think she understands seymour as well if not better than anyone else, she still manages to not get as 'lost' as him. she can adjust herself to deal with her mother and her irritating questions. she seems to be not as elitist as the others who are close to s., like franny, zooey and buddy. she's kind of, um, eclectic, in that she can be shallow, like sally hayes, but i think she's a lot deeper than she lets on. i've liked muriel for as long as i've been reading salinger, but i've never actually sat down to write down why. i haven't explained it very well. i'll try again sometime. -- :helena http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/4801/