Re: the laughing man

WILL HOCHMAN (hochman@uscolo.edu)
Wed, 07 Jan 1998 09:52:21 -0700 (MST)

I have always like TLM best of the 9 stories because its narrative
dialectic (how the 2 stories affect each other's meaning) shows me how
delicate the love of a teacher and hero really is--john gedsuski, the
chief, really lets his kids down--never mind that "it's only a story,"
--when he croaks their hero, he violates his responsibility.  Just because
things go sour with mary hudson, he sours his relationship with his
kids--the mark of a poor parent/teacher is that they protect children and
gedsuski harms them, even if it's "only with a story." In other words,
Salinger
shows how much a part of life stories are for young folks, and how central
their imaginations are to their well being...I keep a poppy petal in my
favorite paper back copy of Nine Stories to make certain I will avoid
telling hurtful stories...will