Re: a quibble about 'for esme'

Excuse me, Kim, but what Gall actually talking about Salinger here :). I
just subscribed to an Austen list and found myself wondering, "what the
heck are you people doing talking about tectonic plates?" I can't imagine
what a new subscriber to this list might think.

My memory of "For Esme" is imperfect -- he was indeed married when he
received the watch from Esme?

I remember the opening lines of the story left the impression of affection
toward his wife, but I think you complicate that pretty nicely. Is
Salinger just down on housewives (that NYT article you posted reminded me
of the wife in Bananafish), or does he use that particular kind of banality
as an analog for adult society?

Jim

Kim Johnson wrote:

> granted, many consider this story the apex of
> salinger's work. and i've always liked it. but here's
> my quibble.
>
> present time: the first paragraph with the narrator
> and his wife; he's forced to stay put and not attend
> the wedding because she's level-headed and the
> mother-in-law is coming for 2 weeks: mother grencher.
> it's almost cartoonish the way it's presented.
>
> we go through the entire story so that he's healed by
> esme and the watch.
>
> but what does he go back to? to a wife who wrote him
> letters during the war about the service at
> schrafft's. to some cartoonish suburbia of
> level-headed wifes and imposing mother-in-laws?
>
> even esme asks him does he love his wife deeply. he
> doesn't answer her. are we to conclude that he now
> does? that he's escaped suffering hell because he's
> *now* able to love??
>
> just musing.
>
> kim
>
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Received on Fri Oct 25 15:49:18 2002