Identical houses / JJF: An Introduction
JJ Flikweert (jjf@HASKONING.nl)
Wed, 12 May 1999 15:00:37 +0200
Hello everybody,
RHTRC is still on my mind, after finishing reading it for the second
time two days ago. Patti, you're almost right: it was indeed Zooey
on It's a Wise Child, and it did have to do with a neighbourhood
made up of similar houses.
I seem to remember though that Buddy's telling us about the
episode of the day itself that the events of RHTRC take place (most
important of which of course the numerous greetings of the old deaf
and dumb uncle to Buddy). Zooey, of course, was much younger at
the time of RHTRC than at the time of Franny and Zooey. What
struck me most was JDS' wording of Zooey's attitude (something
like 'absent-minded'). I think what Zooey said was, that he would
like it if everything in the neighbourhood was so similar that
everyone would, by accident, confuse houses & family members,
wives included.
Apart from that, I'd just like to share my enjoyment of Salinger's
use of italics in the Matron of Honor's conversation in RHTRC.
Short introduction of myself: I'm a Dutch civil engineer who reads
the digest version of the mailing list (at work, I''m afraid to add). So
don't expect any quick replies from me. I read Catcher at school 10
years ago, stumbled across a second-hand copy of RHTRC / S:AI
two years ago and got on this mailing list about one year ago. I'll
continue 'sitting back and reading' most of the time.
JJF
Jaap-Jeroen Flikweert
jjf@haskoning.nl