Subject: Salinger as a mystery writer?
From: Suzanne Morine (suzannem@dimensional.com)
Date: Sat Nov 11 2000 - 23:26:02 GMT
Here is a little investigating I did into Catcher in the Rye and it
occurred to me that Salinger really could be a good mystery writer because
you have to get the details right while not seeming to be calculating about
little things.
This investigation regards the amount of time it took Phoebe to get from
school to home and to back toward school at the museum of art, and how far
home was from the museum.
Space: Their apartment is on 71st street, Holden tells the girl with the
roller skates on page 118. They can see the park from their apartment (p.
67). The museum of art is a little over half a mile north of there, right
on Fifth avenue. Holden thinks of her as walking past the museum to get
home from school (p. 200), so I assume her school is just north of the
museum, near enough to the park to think of her as walking past. Phoebe
came from school to the apartment, packed, went down the back elevator, and
went to the museum. How long did that take?
Holden had asked to meet Phoebe at 12:15 (p. 200). He said it was 25
minutes before one when he started getting worried if Phoebe had got the
note (p. 205). It takes an adult about 20 minutes to walk a mile, however
Phoebe is not an adult (on the other hand, children sometimes enjoy running
to get places) and she was lugging a suitcase on the way from the apartment
to the museum, so I give her an extra 10 minutes. It takes at least 15
minutes to go up and down an elevator and quickly pack. This is a minimum
of 45 minutes, by my calculations (20 + 10 + 15). If she got off for lunch
at noon, she arrives at the MET at 12:45: ten minutes after Holden started
worrying. He did say "finally" he saw her, so I take it he did wait longer
after he noticed the time.
So it adds up, which is really a tribute to Salinger. Most fiction doesn't
hold up to this sort of scrutiny, I would bet.
Suzanne
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