>Just in general, to everyone on the list: what phrasing is, for you, the >absolute sound of Salinger's narrative voice? What about a line of >dialogue? God, Tim...Don't get me started. The dialogue in both "Eskimos" and especially in "Pretty Mouth" are the most brilliant dialogue ever written. The characters communicate so much information without ever saying anything in particular. One of my favorite things is when characters repeat entire sentences, as if they were going to add something, but couldn't think of anything to add. (I haven't got anything in front of me right now either, so I'll paraphrase): In "Eskimos", the girl says to the older brother, "Didn't you ever call her or anything? I mean didn't you ever call her or anything?" Exquisite. Besides that, Holden is a half-inarticulate teenager who communicates some of the most beautifying and terrible views of the world ever penned. Through his elliptical sort of floundering, relying on details to say something ("Kids kill me, they always have to go meet their friends..."), Holden gives us pure emotion, pure sublime thought. Could Salinger have communicated these things by just telling us? By telling us that upper-class, post-war America, in its materialism and falseness, can only alienate and ultimately ruin the truth-seekers? Well. He could have just told us, but I wouldn't have gotten through the first page. Salinger is entertaining first, beautiful second, and brilliant after all else. That's good literature. Brendan Free web-based email, Forever, From anywhere! http://www.mailexcite.com