I respectfully disagree but don't know. I do think Mr. Salinger wants to protect his characters and do hope they've continued to grow in his stories in that safe. I enjoy the progression of his work from very standard (though interesting and well crafted) stories in the forties, to his longer and more innovative work in the fifties and sixties. I don't think he has tapped the well and it's empty, but if all he writes is what we now have, I'd say that is a well that continues to refresh in any case. will On Wed, 9 Sep 1998, PODESTA,Lesley wrote: > Scottie said: > > > "And you know, as I read, it came to me in a great shaft of heavenly > > > > light why Salinger stopped publishing. He had simply come to > > the end of his particular road. That style - all those lists, all > > those endearing asides, those great solid wodges of roguishly > > subdividing clauses, the droll ruminations, the agonising > > self-modifications (all of which got much worse in his late stories) > > > > - that style had nowhere to go except endlessly outwards into a > > kind of monstrous coral." > > > > I had this very sad kind of stomach thump when I read your post > > Scottie. I think that there might be a grain of truth in there.He does > > have a real touch of the obsessive complusive about him and I suspect he > > knows that his writing style is being passed by. I suspect that we would > > read any new works with love, affection and a kind of indulgence - the > > characters are loved despite his overwritten style. (Well, that's how I > > felt when I read Hapworth, anyway.) > Lesley >