Status
Available
Call number
Series
Genres
Collection
Publication
Bantam (1973), Mass Market Paperback, 202 pages
Description
Classic Literature. Fiction. Literature. HTML:"Perhaps the best book by the foremost stylist of his generation" (New York Times), J. D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey collects two works of fiction about the Glass family originally published in The New Yorker."Everything everybody does is soâ??I don't knowâ??not wrong, or even mean, or even stupid necessarily. But just so tiny and meaningless andâ??sad-making. And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you're conforming just as much only in a different way." A novel in two halves, Franny and Zooey brilliantly captures the emotional strains and traumas of entering adulthood. It is a gleaming example of the wit, precision, and poignancy that have made J. D. Salinger one of America's most beloved… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member kylekatz
Haha. My review. Okay. I can't believe I just read this finally at 42. Actually my wife read it to me.
To me the joy of Salinger is in the details. It's practically like reading Proust in some ways. The action is incredibly slowed down by the dense narration of every infinitesimal second as it
It seems quaint. The smoking, the telephones, the plots of Zooey's television scripts. The New York-ness when they don't even leave the apartment. Most of all the books. No those aren't quaint, they're loveable, the sagging shelves of dog-earred paperbacks.
How does the Glass family manage to be so charming, loveable, tragic and broken all at once? And a little loathsome with their self-aggrandizing, painfully over-intellectualized, rants at each other and themselves?
And what about the religion in it? Does Zooey really believe there's a bit of Jesus in every one of us, in every member of any audience, and that he (as well as Franny) has to act his best for them? And that makes Franny feel better after her intellectual crisis, which in a way was really about how unbearably stupid the rest of the people in the world seem to be if you're a Glass? And lastly, am I an insufferable idiot for empathizing with that feeling? Or does everyone feel that the rest of the world is unbelievably moronic too? During the reign of Bush II this certainly has seemed often to be the case.
To me the joy of Salinger is in the details. It's practically like reading Proust in some ways. The action is incredibly slowed down by the dense narration of every infinitesimal second as it
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passes. It seems quaint. The smoking, the telephones, the plots of Zooey's television scripts. The New York-ness when they don't even leave the apartment. Most of all the books. No those aren't quaint, they're loveable, the sagging shelves of dog-earred paperbacks.
How does the Glass family manage to be so charming, loveable, tragic and broken all at once? And a little loathsome with their self-aggrandizing, painfully over-intellectualized, rants at each other and themselves?
And what about the religion in it? Does Zooey really believe there's a bit of Jesus in every one of us, in every member of any audience, and that he (as well as Franny) has to act his best for them? And that makes Franny feel better after her intellectual crisis, which in a way was really about how unbearably stupid the rest of the people in the world seem to be if you're a Glass? And lastly, am I an insufferable idiot for empathizing with that feeling? Or does everyone feel that the rest of the world is unbelievably moronic too? During the reign of Bush II this certainly has seemed often to be the case.
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LibraryThing member JimmyChanga
It reads so much like a play that I suspect the only reason it wasn't is that Salinger was scared shitless that it would actually be [mis]performed:And if you go into the theatre, will you have any illusions about that? Have you ever seen a really beautiful production of, say, The Cherry Orchard?
Do we still have any doubt why Salinger stopped publishing?
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Don't say you have. Nobody has. You may have seen "inspired" productions, "competent" productions, but never anything beautiful. Never one where Chekhov's talent is matched, nuance for nuance, idiosyncrasy for idiosyncrasy, by every soul on-stage.In that quote, Zooey was actually arguing for theater, which is a sign of the book as a whole, i.e. each character offers a critique of the other characters, but each character does not live up to his/her own standards. And so Salinger himself does not live up to Salinger's own standards, which is the point of the book. He's ultimately too uncompromising in his intellect, taste, and integrity, and it's not easy when you can also see through your own hypocrisies and double standards. We call that "too smart for your own good".Phooey, I say, on all white-shoe college boys who edit their campus literary magazines. Give me an honest con man any day.People who think they're better than others often think they're the only ones who are smart enough to think that way. And yet, so many people identify with Salinger's books, to the point where fans must resort to saying that they are the only ones who truly understand Salinger in order to maintain that feeling of superiority. This is not a critique of the book, but in fact, a confirmation of its themes, that the lessons of the book are so accurate that they are played out in the Salinger-worshipping phenomenon itself. The real world acts as parody of this text, oblivious to the irony of it all.Do we still have any doubt why Salinger stopped publishing?
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LibraryThing member bedda
This isn’t for everyone. This isn’t for me. The book is all dialogue and description. Which isn’t inherently a bad thing but in this instance it didn’t really do anything for me. There are a few interesting exchanges, mostly between Zooey and his mother, but mostly I just found it all
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uninteresting. I didn’t feel as if anything had happened. Or that anything had been explained. Zooey talks and talks and then finally stops. That’s it. Show Less
LibraryThing member pingdjip
Ideas on religion, thinly wrapped up in dialogues that tend to deteriorate into monologues.
The best part is Franny’s little monologue on the phone, at the end of the second part (“Zooey”). She provides us with a fresh and sensible account of everything the reader has been suffering from her
Zooey is arrogant and his jokes are poor, but the narrator (not Franny) seems to think of him as a brave and tormented ĂĽbermensch.
The narrator also thinks that mental breakdowns are best cured with ideas. Get your ideas straight and… up you go, into the world!
Contrary to popular belief this is not a wise book.
The best part is Franny’s little monologue on the phone, at the end of the second part (“Zooey”). She provides us with a fresh and sensible account of everything the reader has been suffering from her
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brother Zooey up till that point. Zooey is arrogant and his jokes are poor, but the narrator (not Franny) seems to think of him as a brave and tormented ĂĽbermensch.
The narrator also thinks that mental breakdowns are best cured with ideas. Get your ideas straight and… up you go, into the world!
Contrary to popular belief this is not a wise book.
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LibraryThing member sarahmarcus
This is as good as writing gets. I think this is the book I would take, were I trapped on a desert island. I read a lot, and I have yet to discover an author who writes as perfectly and beautifully and honestly as Salinger.
LibraryThing member blanderson
Second Reading: Still arresting and genuinely touching. What struck me this time thru is how each member of the family uses their own specific 'roles' to deal with emotional pain. Bessie, the matron, frets and frowns, offers bowls of chicken broth as a sort of sacrament. Franny, the spiritualist
Beautiful.
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and actor, flies into a touching performance of spiritual ennui. Zooey, ever extravagant, plays the roles of mother, of brother, and living room psycho-anylist, relishing his own performance. Buddy, the writer, of course, takes the job of family chronicler, feeling engaged from afar. And Seymour, the ghost, rumbles thru every word they speak, as if the beauty of his mind has both enriched and stained them unspeakably. Beautiful.
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LibraryThing member Ambrosia4
I loved this book and the idea it encompassed: that the world is not as amazing as some people would love us to believe.
This whole book seems to take place in the course of about four scenes with only four characters, but it is so beautiful and true. Franny is a young college girl who's realized
Her slightly older brother Zooey is just as disenchanted with the world, but has come to a stalemate with it: not living through his life as a weeping mess, but not living to the fullest either. Both learn something about their enlightened state of mind when Zooey tries to help Franny out of her funk and come to realize they'll need to find a way to survive without losing this enlightenment or being a slave to it.
I personally connected with this book due to it's message as I have become more and more disillusioned by the falsities in the modern world. Franny and Zooey show that this is not necessarily a negative outlook, but that it must be made to be less traumatizing and debilitating. A wonderful thinking book for our times.
This whole book seems to take place in the course of about four scenes with only four characters, but it is so beautiful and true. Franny is a young college girl who's realized
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that the world is not an amazing place and is trying her hardest to get back to the state of mind of a child where nothing is wrong. She is calling upon God and her dead older brother and everything she can think of, but she sits on the family couch weeping her life away.Her slightly older brother Zooey is just as disenchanted with the world, but has come to a stalemate with it: not living through his life as a weeping mess, but not living to the fullest either. Both learn something about their enlightened state of mind when Zooey tries to help Franny out of her funk and come to realize they'll need to find a way to survive without losing this enlightenment or being a slave to it.
I personally connected with this book due to it's message as I have become more and more disillusioned by the falsities in the modern world. Franny and Zooey show that this is not necessarily a negative outlook, but that it must be made to be less traumatizing and debilitating. A wonderful thinking book for our times.
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LibraryThing member xicanti
This is, simply put, a remarkable book.
If you want action, look elsewhere. This isn't a conventionally exciting book. It's dialogue-heavy. Most of it takes place in a single setting. Not much happens, in a physical sense.
But if you want a book that does wonders with familial themes, uses dialogue
I'm in awe of Salinger, I really am. He has an amazing gift for revealing the inner workings of a person's mind without directly stating anything. He gives the reader all the pieces, then lets her put them together for herself. His dialogue has a real theatrical feel to it; it's almost as though we're actually there with Franny and Zooey, watching their conversations play out. It's amazing, pure and simple.
You should read it. You really, really should.
If you want action, look elsewhere. This isn't a conventionally exciting book. It's dialogue-heavy. Most of it takes place in a single setting. Not much happens, in a physical sense.
But if you want a book that does wonders with familial themes, uses dialogue
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to amazing effect, examines religious confusion and just generally packs a huge emotional wallop, look no further. This is your book.I'm in awe of Salinger, I really am. He has an amazing gift for revealing the inner workings of a person's mind without directly stating anything. He gives the reader all the pieces, then lets her put them together for herself. His dialogue has a real theatrical feel to it; it's almost as though we're actually there with Franny and Zooey, watching their conversations play out. It's amazing, pure and simple.
You should read it. You really, really should.
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LibraryThing member MusicMom41
I read Catcher in the Rye years ago when I was a teenager and was totally underwhelmed. I thought the story was boring and Holden Caulfield didn’t interest me at all. (I think I had just read Jane Eyre and Rochester was my idea of a “hero” for a story.) I realize now I was probably too
Franny and Zooey is a wonderful and unique (at least for me) book. The first and shorter part of the novel, “Franny” introduces us to Franny Glass, a college coed who arrives on a train to spend a special football weekend with her Ivy League boyfriend at his school. I went to a small liberal arts college and I remember spending a couple of weekends like that—except I didn’t have to take a train because my school was coed. The second part of the story is called “Zooey” and introduces us to the Glass family and especially Franny’s brother, Zooey who is about 5 years older than she but closest to her because they are the two youngest siblings. This is a character driven novel with essentially no plot. We learn about the characters by their interactions,, conversations, and observations made by the “narrator” who is actually a much older brother that we meet at the very beginning of the book. I found the characters wonderful and the conversations fascinating and revealing and the descriptions vivid. Bottom line: I laughed, I cried, and I often stopped to “ponder” about these people. I can hardly wait to find the other stories he’s written about this family. Highly recommended.
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young—and too naive—to have a clue what Salinger was trying to do. However, the novel left such a bad taste in my mouth that I vowed never to read another Salinger book ever. Luckily for me, this year Eliza (girlunderglass) persuaded me to change my mind.Franny and Zooey is a wonderful and unique (at least for me) book. The first and shorter part of the novel, “Franny” introduces us to Franny Glass, a college coed who arrives on a train to spend a special football weekend with her Ivy League boyfriend at his school. I went to a small liberal arts college and I remember spending a couple of weekends like that—except I didn’t have to take a train because my school was coed. The second part of the story is called “Zooey” and introduces us to the Glass family and especially Franny’s brother, Zooey who is about 5 years older than she but closest to her because they are the two youngest siblings. This is a character driven novel with essentially no plot. We learn about the characters by their interactions,, conversations, and observations made by the “narrator” who is actually a much older brother that we meet at the very beginning of the book. I found the characters wonderful and the conversations fascinating and revealing and the descriptions vivid. Bottom line: I laughed, I cried, and I often stopped to “ponder” about these people. I can hardly wait to find the other stories he’s written about this family. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member edwinbcn
As Franny and Zooey is generally considered contemporary literature, most editions of this work by J.D. Salinger are published without an introduction. That is a pity, because the title of the book is sufficiently confusing to believe that the work forms a unity, whereas in fact Franny is a short
As a short story, Franny is magnificent, and very humourous, as Franny's boyfriend Lane holds his pretentious monologue, while Franny is apparently bored to death. It is a great short story.
The novella Zooey, on the other hand, is an obscure story with oblique meaning, which is made more difficult when attempting to see the two pieces as a unity.
Both stories seem to explore the theme of veneration, Lane who is driven by his ideals of pursuing a career in literature, Zooey, by the admiration for his elder brother, whose (four-year old) letter he keeps reading, and Franny in her adoration of the spiritual guidebook, she carries with her. Their forms of devotion all seem very typical of adolescents growing up, and finding their own way.
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story, and Zooey is a separate novella, although both deal with members of the same family and both Franny and Zooey appear as characters in the novella.As a short story, Franny is magnificent, and very humourous, as Franny's boyfriend Lane holds his pretentious monologue, while Franny is apparently bored to death. It is a great short story.
The novella Zooey, on the other hand, is an obscure story with oblique meaning, which is made more difficult when attempting to see the two pieces as a unity.
Both stories seem to explore the theme of veneration, Lane who is driven by his ideals of pursuing a career in literature, Zooey, by the admiration for his elder brother, whose (four-year old) letter he keeps reading, and Franny in her adoration of the spiritual guidebook, she carries with her. Their forms of devotion all seem very typical of adolescents growing up, and finding their own way.
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LibraryThing member Kristelh
Another one I did not write a review. So probably need to reread someday. I wasn't a fan of it but maybe I didn't read it at the right time.
LibraryThing member LeslieHolm
I read Franny and Zooey in school; I think I was about 13 or 14, and it must have been on a reading list in English class; I am sure we didn't read it as a class or I would have understood it properly. As it was, I was totally seduced by it and wanted to be Franny.
Some 55 years later I am Zooey, or
There is so much about the book left unsaid that it's almost annoying, but the description of the time and the caricatures of people were pretty much spot on. I think I would really like to know if Salinger himself was as affected as his characterizations.
This is no kind of review but I can't do better with it. I will say that I know why it's no longer on reading lists in high school - I can't imagine any of the teenagers I know being able to relate to it in any way.
Some 55 years later I am Zooey, or
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some aspects of him, particularly his cynicism, but what I'm not sure he realized (though I am sure Salinger did) was that he tended to be exactly what he despised. But maybe he did.There is so much about the book left unsaid that it's almost annoying, but the description of the time and the caricatures of people were pretty much spot on. I think I would really like to know if Salinger himself was as affected as his characterizations.
This is no kind of review but I can't do better with it. I will say that I know why it's no longer on reading lists in high school - I can't imagine any of the teenagers I know being able to relate to it in any way.
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LibraryThing member kbs25
This is my favorite book of all time. I think this is better than Catcher in the Rye, which may seem heretical, but Salinger provides a glimpse of mysticism through a seemingly simple story.
LibraryThing member seoulful
Family drama at its best. A family of geniuses who have the accompanying syndrome of an inability to cope with the world, find themselves in a crisis. An interesting interplay between mother, daughter and son that despite the harshness of language reveals a love and respect for each other. An
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overlay of sadness is broken by the keen humor of the author. The authentic dialogue and insight into character make for an outstanding book. Show Less
LibraryThing member Georg.Miggel
Arrogant young siblings are talking about how boring and illiterate the rest of the world is. I hate self-pity but I still hate more this kind of patronizing pity for others shown by people who think they are brlliant ĂĽbermenschen
LibraryThing member gwendolyndawson
Contains two interrelated stories. The stories, originally published in The New Yorker magazine, concern Franny and Zooey Glass, two members of the family that was the subject of most of Salinger's short fiction (and also the Wes Anderson movie The Royal Tannenbaums). Franny is an intellectually
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precocious late adolescent who tries to attain spiritual purification by obsessively reiterating the "Jesus prayer" as an antidote to the perceived superficiality and corruptness of life. She subsequently suffers a nervous breakdown. In the second story, her next older brother, Zooey, attempts to heal Franny by pointing out that her constant repetition of the "Jesus prayer" is as self-involved and egotistical as the egotism against which she rails. Entertaining and intelligent. Show Less
LibraryThing member mattviews
J. D. Salinger has a knack about puzzling his readers to the very end of the book and redeems himself with transcendent concluding remarks. "Franny and Zooey" does not possess much surface appeal as the more known "The Catcher in the Rye". The book does not really follow a conventional plot and is
Franny, 20, the youngest of the Glass children, is about to drop out from college as she feels sick of pedants and conceited egos. She desires to be spiritual and to pray incessantly to Jesus whom she later on out of frustration deserts for Buddhism. Franny experiences a spiritual crisis that leads to her nervous breakdown. She feels just as shallow and hypocritical as the rest of humanity.
Zooey, 25, a handsome aspiring actor, is an underachiever in the standard of the Glass family. His eldest brother Seymour had a doctoral degree but committed suicide during his vacation in Florida. His next elder brother Buddy cajoles him to obtain a doctoral degree just so he has something to fall back to if the show business doesn't work out. In helping Franny to snap out of her crisis, Zooey's bitterness toward his elder brothers inevitably surfaces that out of jaundice he expressions his feeling like being haunted by a house-full of ghost and half-dead ghost (since Buddy follows Seymour's model but he doesn't commit suicide).
At various points of the book am I stuck with doubts and unanswered questions regarding Franny's sufferings. To say the least even though the book touches upon some religious overtones but the core of which revolves around the idea of human ego, detachment, harmony and temperance. The novel affords a snapshot of how elder adult siblings can significantly influence their younger siblings at an early stage and formulate their mind. Readers shall catch a glimpse of the clash between old-schooled values and novel insights of the younger generation within a family.
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thus deprived of any suspense and climax. It is rather a crafted delineation of human emotions, nuances and layers of the relationships between adult siblings. Salinger, putting his arguments in the mouth of Franny and her brother Zooey, addresses the disparities between Christianity and Buddhism and the convergence of Eastern and Western thoughts. Franny, 20, the youngest of the Glass children, is about to drop out from college as she feels sick of pedants and conceited egos. She desires to be spiritual and to pray incessantly to Jesus whom she later on out of frustration deserts for Buddhism. Franny experiences a spiritual crisis that leads to her nervous breakdown. She feels just as shallow and hypocritical as the rest of humanity.
Zooey, 25, a handsome aspiring actor, is an underachiever in the standard of the Glass family. His eldest brother Seymour had a doctoral degree but committed suicide during his vacation in Florida. His next elder brother Buddy cajoles him to obtain a doctoral degree just so he has something to fall back to if the show business doesn't work out. In helping Franny to snap out of her crisis, Zooey's bitterness toward his elder brothers inevitably surfaces that out of jaundice he expressions his feeling like being haunted by a house-full of ghost and half-dead ghost (since Buddy follows Seymour's model but he doesn't commit suicide).
At various points of the book am I stuck with doubts and unanswered questions regarding Franny's sufferings. To say the least even though the book touches upon some religious overtones but the core of which revolves around the idea of human ego, detachment, harmony and temperance. The novel affords a snapshot of how elder adult siblings can significantly influence their younger siblings at an early stage and formulate their mind. Readers shall catch a glimpse of the clash between old-schooled values and novel insights of the younger generation within a family.
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LibraryThing member rampaginglibrarian
Basically a book-length monologue.
LibraryThing member ElCa0720
The siblings in the book kinda get annoying that they complain a lot. I also found the mother annoying when she was talking to zooey and just was wanting to know everything. I was annoyed a lot through this book.
LibraryThing member alienhard
Brilliant dialogue. No chapters. So many cigarettes, so much smoking. Can you get secondhand smoke from a book? I think I need a shower. Speaking of which, that conversation in the bathroom goes on forEVER. I kept wanting one of them to LEAVE THE ROOM.
3.5 stars
3.5 stars
LibraryThing member froxgirl
I had cause to reread this classic when I read a different book that reminded me of it.
One of the greatest American literary tragedies is the small amount of Glass family stories created by J.D. Salinger. We know each member, except Les the patriarch, from novels and stories. But we don't know
We do, however, really get to know the two youngest in this most perfect novel. In the first section, Franny goes up to Yale for a football game and falls apart over a plate of snails and her awful boyfriend. Then, Zooey shaves and tolerates his mother's invading the bathroom. And then Franny and Zooey talk and act, and nothing in my world was ever the same. Even at age twelve, when I first pulled it from my parents' bookcase, I knew that there could be nothing better on any subsequent pages, ever. And now I treasure my hardcover copy, $4.00 for the ninth printing, and try and imagine coming across these siblings for the first time in stories in the New Yorker. I was born too late.
One of the greatest American literary tragedies is the small amount of Glass family stories created by J.D. Salinger. We know each member, except Les the patriarch, from novels and stories. But we don't know
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exactly why Seymour killed himself, how Waker became a priest, and what became of Buddy.We do, however, really get to know the two youngest in this most perfect novel. In the first section, Franny goes up to Yale for a football game and falls apart over a plate of snails and her awful boyfriend. Then, Zooey shaves and tolerates his mother's invading the bathroom. And then Franny and Zooey talk and act, and nothing in my world was ever the same. Even at age twelve, when I first pulled it from my parents' bookcase, I knew that there could be nothing better on any subsequent pages, ever. And now I treasure my hardcover copy, $4.00 for the ninth printing, and try and imagine coming across these siblings for the first time in stories in the New Yorker. I was born too late.
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LibraryThing member esigel
When we were teenagers, my friends and I thought J.D. Salinger was the height of sophistication: at turns ironic, falling-down funny and forever disdainful of convention and phoniness. This book, at least, hasn't worn that well for me. It consists of two long stories about different members of the
Salinger has wonderfully evocative, comic gifts, which are in full display in the scene, in the first story, of Lane and Franny in the restaurant on the day of the big football game, and in the second story, of Bessie, the mother, insisting on entering the bathroom to carry on an extended conversation while her son Zooey is lounging in the bath.
But neither story has a plot, unless you count the fact that in both stories Franny, the youngest Glass child at age 20, is obsessed with saying the Jesus prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me) over and over. It's an obsession that disturbs her date, Lane, and her brother, Zooey, though in neither story is there any resolution of this conflict. By the end of the second story, the brilliant dialogue that Salinger writes has become tiresome, while Zooey's constant repetition of how he hates phonies winds up being, you guessed it, phony in its own right.
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Glass family, a theatrical family whose seven children are (were--the eldest, Seymour, killed himself) all brilliant, precocious and either eccentric or crazy, depending on your point of view.Salinger has wonderfully evocative, comic gifts, which are in full display in the scene, in the first story, of Lane and Franny in the restaurant on the day of the big football game, and in the second story, of Bessie, the mother, insisting on entering the bathroom to carry on an extended conversation while her son Zooey is lounging in the bath.
But neither story has a plot, unless you count the fact that in both stories Franny, the youngest Glass child at age 20, is obsessed with saying the Jesus prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me) over and over. It's an obsession that disturbs her date, Lane, and her brother, Zooey, though in neither story is there any resolution of this conflict. By the end of the second story, the brilliant dialogue that Salinger writes has become tiresome, while Zooey's constant repetition of how he hates phonies winds up being, you guessed it, phony in its own right.
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LibraryThing member maepress
I will read this book twenty more times in my life at least. I love all things written by Salinger, but this one has a special place in my heart. It's a perfect jewel of a book. Characters so nuanced that they seem like they're reading over your shoulder. Each conversation sounds completely
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unrehearsed and fresh. Show Less
LibraryThing member Letter4No1
I truly enjoyed this novel, if you can even call it a novel. One thing I have always loved about Salinger is how real his characters are, even when they are completely fucked up in the head. Franny's self doubt and Zooeys pompous attitude make for intriguing interactions with everyone they come in
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contact with. The whole of the Glass family is fascinating, if not tragic, making me want to delve deeper into their story. Show Less
LibraryThing member mthelibrarian
A friend's daughter, a prolific reader and 13-year-old, read "Catcher in the Rye" and immediately checked out the rest of Salinger from the library. "Franny and Zooey" is on her top 10 favorites of all time. And with Salinger in the news, I finally picked up this book. While I still prefer
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"Catcher," I liked this one too. I hope he has a safe full of manuscripts! Show Less
Subjects
Awards
National Book Award (Finalist — Fiction — 1962)
Notable Books List (1961)
Language
Original publication date
1961
Physical description
202 p.; 6.7 inches
ISBN
0553269739 / 9780553269734