Re: Warren French

J J R (jrovira@juno.com)
Wed, 02 Dec 1998 23:05:34 -0500 (EST)

Yeah, I was hoping some of the scholars on this list would reply :)  I
didn't mind his conversational style (that's the main thing that commends
the book as a good intro to Salinger scholarship, besides the fact that
he seems to at least touch all the bases), but when he was going through
the "underpublished" fiction he sounded like (at times) the Only reason
for reading a story was to be able to say, "and the moral of the story
is..." or, "and the point of the story is..." -- as if every short story
were to be read as one of Grimm's Fairy Tales.  THAT'S what sounded
stupid to me.

The other thing that bothered me was that, in a work like his, I prefer
to have "all the different views" presented objectively, rather than
having one more view presented--as if the introduction I was reading was
intended to be the last word.  I would have trusted the intro more if it
were more review and less criticism.

I guess I just wanted him to Sound more objective :)

On the other hand, while I hadn't read any of the stories he was
reviewing in that section, I did trust his judgment that they were flawed
stories and I understood more why Salinger wouldn't want at least some of
them republished.  And I'm glad I read this intro before I read any of
Salinger's other works with Holden Caulfield in it--I think it'd be
confusing as Anything to try to see a consistent Holden through all
Salinger's works, and that would have been what I was trying to do.

I understand that if I was more familar with Saligner scholarship, it's
quite possible I'd be praising French's restraint :)

Jim   


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