Subject: first reads (was Re: Wonderful Town, etcetera)
erespess@nji.com
Date: Thu Feb 10 2000 - 23:09:29 EST
>Perhaps some anecdotes of First JDS Reads might make a nice thread?
Good idea. I'll bite.
I read Catcher when I was way too young to relate to what Holden was
going through. My initial reaction was, "what a whiner."
I am now ducking the virtual tomatoes being thrown at me.
Several years later, while in college, a friend yelled over the
phone, "I just found my favorite book!" . That book was RHTRBC. I
mentioned to one of our other friends the next day that I had never
read anything Salinger except Catcher, which I didn't like. He gave
a copy of Nine Stories to me within the next few days, I think on my
birthday. I remember feeling as the author didn't hand me anything -
that I felt as if I had been dropped into conversations in which I
knew nothing - not the context, not the characters, nothing - but
they were wonderfully intriguing conversations and I hung on every
tidbit of detail I could use to fit the puzzle together. It was such
an incredible feeling. I cried at the end of almost every story
because I knew it was a feeling that could never be duplicated. I
could never be introduced to those characters again. I have since
fallen in love with them on a deeper level, and no longer mourn the
moment of our acquaintance.
I soon sought out RHTRBC &SAI and F&Z, which were experiences that I
will have to think more about before I can really put into words that
might make any kind of sense.
I am very curious about these first readings. I hope this thread
catches on. Thanks, Bruce.
Elizabeth
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