Subject: Sick More Glass
From: citycabn (citycabn@gateway.net)
Date: Mon Oct 23 2000 - 16:01:08 GMT
I usually try to stay away from literary criticism, but I did say off-list
that I would attempt to locate and read Eberhard Alsen's "Salinger's Glass
Stories as a Composite Novel".
Well, locate it I did. I didn't get further than page five, when I read,
"In 1945, shortly after the end of the war, Buddy visits Seymour in the
psychiatric ward of an army hospital, somewhere in Germany." From my
reading of the stories, I couldn't recall *this*. Then I noticed in the
Table of Contents a chapter titled "Seymour--A Chronology". I skipped over
to see what might be noted about this hospital visit. No mention of Buddy's
visit *there* opposite *1945*, though I read that "Seymour, 28, has a
nervous breakdown and is treated in an Army hospital". The next entry reads
"1945-48 Seymour remains in psychiatric wards of Army hospitals for most of
the last three years of his life." Startled, I now read that in "1941
Seymour attempts to commit suicide" and "Seymour now drinks quite a bit".
Alsen then goes on to prove that Buddy can't remember the date of Seymour's
successful suicide: it's March 19th, not the 18th.
My question is (before I attempt to recommence my reading of Alsen), do
these "facts" in Alsen's Chronology of Seymour's life seem right to you?
--Bruce
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