Re: Zooey rediscovered
WILL HOCHMAN (hochman@uscolo.edu)
Sun, 18 Jan 1998 14:21:13 -0700 (MST)
the bawer article was well researched but I think fails to penetrate some
of salinger's best moments regarding love and silence and
holiness...however, if I recall correctly mr. bawer makes a good point in
wishing we could know more about mr. salinger's youth--I've often wondered
how mr. salinger's sister has read his work and how his imagined families
are linked to his memories...but I have learned to let mr. salinger's life
not be the focus of the text and I'm afraid mr. bawer uses too much of
an authored-centered focus to suit me. Despite knowing bruce
bawer is a kind man (he generously gave me permission to include this
essay in my dissertation and encouraged my salinger scholarship) and
enjoying his criticism (Bawer has written on a wonderful variety of
subjects and always writes well and with interesting insights--his new
book, _Stealing Jesus_ is reviewed in this week's Sunday NYTimes), I do
think his article on Salinger was too tough on what can only be
guessed...will
on salinger assumes some negative things about mr. salinger that were
pretty unfair and hard to support...will