Re: Warren French

Pasha Paterson (gpaterso@richmond.edu)
Wed, 02 Dec 1998 18:45:08 -0500

At 17:06 12/02/98 -0500, Jim (JJR) wrote:
>Wrote a book called JD Salinger revisited.  It's the first work about
>Salinger that I've read--I mean, I've read no literary criticism,
>nothing.  
>
>This particular book reads like it was written by a book reviewer rather
>than a scholar.  He's given scholarly status in the "about the author"
>part of the book--it refers to "graduate degrees" rather than just saying
>he got his PhD.  And it gives a long list of colleges he's taught in. 
>But, I'm sorry, the guy just plain sounds pretty stupid sometimes (in my
>opinion.  At least, not professional).
>
>HOWEVER, it is a readable, fairty straightforward description of
>Salinger's work, and a good introduction (it seems to be so far, anyways)
>to the issues surrounding his life and work.  And it does point toward
>good primary sources (so far as I can tell) in Salinger scholarship.
>
>Now, this may not have been French's "intent" (heh, a loaded word now :)
>), but when French was describing Salinger's gradual withdrawal from the
>public eye, I came away with a picture of Salinger as a man with a fairly
>low self-esteem--someone who can't take either praise or criticism very
>well and, as a result, would rather withdraw from the world rather than
>face it.  That was my impression, anyways, and French nowhere comes out
>and even Strongly Implies such a thing...

I also read JDS2 for a research paper on _Nine_Stories_ and was
enamored with his almost conversational style of writing.  This "non-
professional" aspect was, I found, more refreshing than stupid.  It
made me feel a bit more authorized in disagreeing with some of his
arguments, too. :)  He was, however, quite thorough in his gathering
of background information and sincere in his analysis.  If his non-
professional style was bad, you should see how truly boring some other,
more formal critics can be.  I'll take French's style any day.

But if you don't like him, that's fine with me. :)


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 G.H.G.A.Paterson  (804)662-3737  gpaterso@richmond.edu
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