I'm sorry ... I'm a well known anti-fan of Hamilton's book. I simply found it extremely self-important. All his `Salinger's name and mine are linked forevermore, you'll never think of Salinger without thinking of Hamilton' as well as his use of his `biographer' persona (whose `we' reeked of the royal plural) I found very annoying. Yes, Hamilton's book is factually very interesting, though not particularly scholarly - I found it just a tad tabloidy - maybe I would find the book more productive if it didn't even *pretend* to be a biography. It's more the story of the biographer than his subject, in the same way as a very similar book, Janet Malcolm's `The Silent Woman - Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes'. In both cases I got irritated because the biographers saw themselves as important enough to insert themselves into the action. I don't care that Hamilton portrayed Salinger as a cantankerous old bastard. He very probably is. What I object to is the way Hamilton seemed to regard Salinger as a small, bad-tempered animal who, if you waved a few leaves into his burrow, would eventually rush out, coughing and spluttering and giving us all a good laugh - and Hamilton was right there waiting to claim the kudos. He treated Salinger less as a human being and more as a construct; almost a fictional character himself. Hamilton wanted to be the guy who lured Salinger into the open and he failed. And he was a little pissed off by this (: I've always found the Time article about Salinger much more interesting and well written than this book (you'll find it in `Salinger: A Critical and Personal Portrait') As for Hamilton ... I see him as just another (albeit maybe a more ambitious one) in the hopeless line of grocery-queue and jeep-chasing photographers, all of whom are not at all worried about what they can do to or for Salinger, but what Salinger; what *illuminating* a little piece of Salinger, can do for them (did anyone say Joyce Maynard??) Anyhoo ... my 2 sense as D would say, Camille verona_beach@geocities.com @ THE ARTS HOLE www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442 @ THE INVERTED FOREST www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest Andy Wishart wrote: > >In Ian Hamilton's (ughh) `biography' of JDS, he mentions that Sergeant X's > >army number in the story was the same as JDS's in real life. Also, JDS was > >in that area at that time of the war, and also had a nervous breakdown > >after the war. > > Ughh? Can I assume you didn't enjoy Mr Hamilton's work? I found it > very readable (often echoing Salinger stylistically, in fact). > > The publication of Hamilton's book filled in a lot of blanks for me > (who'd read and reread only the (book) published work) and I found it > an interesting and enlightening read. > > I don't think he overstepped any lines and I believe (had he been > allowed) he'd have presented a scholarly work (which, I suppose, > Salinger more than doesn't want, but strongly resents and will > actively disallow) > > Sure, it all ends out messy (and ridiculously absurd) and our (and > Hamilton's) hero finally reveals himself to have feet of clay. > > Does it matter, though, if Salinger-the-man is revealed as simply a > failing, faltering human (like us all)? And do you think he was/is? > If we can imagine that Salinger may even heave a sigh of relief to be > so revealed, maybe Hamilton's book provides a service to Salinger at > that. > > Of course reading the book tainted to some extent my feelings about > Salinger (the man) and left me a little deflated (though I'm unsure > what I would want from him - acknowledgement? A nodding wink and a > final bow?) but that, in itself, is a lesson learned and doesn't > detract (as far as I can tell or hope) from my admiration of much of > Salinger (the author)'s work. > > babble. . . > > Anyway, I liked it. > > > -- > Cheers, > Andy