Lionel Retrospective

Memory’s a funny thing. With time, memories are often lost. They fade from year to year, until eventually they are gray and foggy and exist only in the very back of your mind, and even then only if you concentrate very hard. But then, on the other hand, there are some memories that manage to resist the aging process. These are the ones that you can remember as easily as if it was yesterday that they happened, though most of the time, it’s been years and years. This is the case for me when it comes to a memory of my mother. It was a cool fall day in my childhood, and it was just the three of us out on the pier. Me, my mother, and the dinghy. I’d been hiding. Earlier that day, I’d overheard our maid, a large woman by the name of Sandra, say something rude about my father, and it was eating me up inside. At four, I looked at my father as if he were the sun and everything else in the world a lesser planet in his orbit, and so I just couldn’t understand why Sandra didn’t like him. It was a deeply disturbing concept to me, and because in my young brain I was merely an extension of my father, I felt personally slighted. My mother found me, as she often did. She had an uncanny ability for knowing exactly where I would run to. “Ahoy,” she said. I was feeling very sullen, so I turned my back and didn’t answer. My mother persisted. She asked me questions and tried to get in the dinghy with me, but I wouldn't budge. It’s funny: to this day, when I think of my mother I think of a pillar of stone—strong, sturdy, and utterly unbreakable—but in reality, she’s as slender as a toothpick. I suppose it’s her inner strength that makes me see her this way. Certainly, it was this inner strength that allowed her to remain perfectly calm when I finally came out with it minutes later: “Sandra—told Mrs. Smell—that Daddy’s a big—sloppy—kike.” “Do you know what a kike is, baby?” my mother asked me. Actually, I did, so I was very confused: a kike was the brightly colored piece of fabric you could fly in the sky on windy days, so why Sandra thought my father was one, and a big, sloppy one, too, was beyond me. I said as much to my mother. “Tell you what we’ll do,” she replied. “We’ll drive to town and get some pickles, and some bread, and we’ll eat the pickles in the car, and then we’ll go to the station and get Daddy. Okay?” This sounded like fun to me, especially the pickle part, so I allowed my mother to help me out of the dinghy. We raced to the house; my mother let me win. Later that afternoon, after a snack of pickles and bread, I laughed and played alongside my parents like any other little boy. The incident was soon erased from my mind, and I only ever thought of it once a short time later, when Sandra was inexplicably fired. I told my mother I was glad she was gone, and my mother smiled strangely at me and said that she was, too. It was only when I was older, a young adult in my twenties, that the memory unburied itself, and I was able to understand things in a way that my four-year-old self could not. To this day, when I see a kite floating on the breeze, I think of that old maid of ours. But even more so than that, I think of my mother. I think of the way she knelt by the dinghy and spoke softly to me until I was okay enough to come out, and I think of the dinghy itself, a tiny little thing, but at the time it seemed as grand as a pirate ship to me. I also think of my heritage; at times as a boy it made me miserable, but now, I am proud of who I am and where I come from. I think of these things and I smile.

Lionel Remembering

I ran away from home when I was four. Actually, I ran away from home a lot; my mom says I started at two and a half. One time I ran away because someone had said "You stink, kid," to me and my parents called the police to find out where I was. That was the farthest I ever went, but when I was four I stayed closer to home. I went to Daddy's boat.  We hadn't taken it out for a long time, but I had liked to pretend I was a pirate.

It wasn't hard for my mom to find me, and as soon as she did, she started playing along with my little pirate fantasy. She even claimed to be an admiral, which upset me. Daddy had told me that ladies weren't admirals, and my mom was a lady.  As if that wasn't bad enough, she had to say "he's probably the biggest landlubber I know." She went on to talk about how she was an admiral (and only a lady in port) but I knew she was lying. If she was telling the truth, then that meant Daddy had lied. I didn't like the idea. In fact, I would always get upset when someone said something bad about Daddy. That was the reason I ran away in the first place; Sandra had called Daddy a "big sloppy kike."

As soon as I mentioned this to my mom, she switched tactics. Suddenly she wasn't an admiral anymore (not that she had ever been one). She said we were going to get Daddy from the station and bring him home so he could take us for a ride in his boat. We had raced back to the house and I got there way before her. I sometimes wonder if my mom was really that excited to get Daddy; she had seemed more interested in getting me out of the boat now that I think about it.

Lionel Monologue

Ever since I was two, I had tried to run away. I had wanted to escape from my life, from the hate, from the people who were mean, like Sandra and Mrs. Snell. They did things like calling my dad a “kike.” I didn’t even know what that meant when I heard it first. I was four. How could I have known? But I knew it was a bad thing- that much was clear to me, even then. That was why I tried to run away again.

When my mother came to me in the boat, I didn’t want to talk to her. I said she was lying when she said she was an admiral, I throw the goggles in the lake, I threw her gift in the lake, I wouldn’t let her into my boat. I did these things because I wanted her to go away, because I didn’t think she could understand why I wanted to run, but when she talked to me, I couldn’t help opening up to her. When I told her what I had heard, that Sandra had called dad a kike, I felt better. When we raced to the house and I won- I realize now she let me- I realized that my life was good, that I could be happy. That was the last time I tried to run away.

It was years ago now that my mother died. I still miss her, but I remember what she showed me that night, and I know her strength is in me, and that, thanks to her, I will never run away again.

Boo Boo's Retrospective

            I remember the day clearly enough, considering it’s been a few years now. We always had problems with Lionel running away, but each and every time he would never truly tell me what was wrong. Until that day of course, that day we finally connected. We’ve always been somewhat distant since then, but I will never forget the day Lionel finally opened up to me.

At the beginning of the day I recall talking to Mrs. Snell and Sandra, though the details of our conversation are a bit fuzzy. I told them of the numerous times Lionel has run away and his refusal to give explanations as to why. Once they told me Lionel was down at the dinghy, I knew I had to try and reach out to him one more time.

As I walked towards the dinghy, a thought came to me to try a different approach than the previous, “Lionel, why are you running? Promise you won’t do it again? For mommy?” This time I thought that maybe I should attempt to talk to him on his terms, in this case maybe some ship speak. I approached him, telling him I was an admiral, and when he tried to deny that, I put my index finger and thumb together and made a sort of call, telling him that was a secret call only us admirals could hear. That got his attention.

Once he was slightly willing to talk, I went back to the old approach, but he kept trying to revert back to ship speak. Once I firmly asked him why he was running away, he threw his Uncle Webb’s goggles into the lake. Then I gave him the key chain, knowing he was going to throw it, but I figured it might help get his frustrations out. To my luck I was right, and he finally started to cry.

I immediately sat with him and comforted him; let him know everything was ok. That’s when he finally opened up and told me why he was so upset; something he had heard. He overheard Sandra call his father a kike. This absolutely astonished me; both that Sandra had said such things and Lionel understood what it meant enough to be upset. “Or maybe he didn’t”, I had thought to myself, which lead me to ask him what it meant. Lionel told me a kike was one of those toys attached to a string that you fly up in the sky. I felt relieved, and told Lionel that that wasn’t too much of a bad thing. Once he was feeling better, we raced back to the house, and I let him win, to make sure he felt that he was on top once again.

Boo Boo monologue

They say one who guards her tongue in youth, has few regrets in old age. Truthfully, theres more to it than that; most times, it is actions that should be treated with the most caution. That day on the boat was one of the hardest moments for a parent. I watched my son mature far beyond his years in a few minutes, as he realized that his father wasn't coming back. He understood at age 4. I guess I am partly to blame for that; He was so much more intelligent than the kids his age, I forgot how truly young he was. Instead of shielding him, I showed him how cruel the world could really be. I was more of a friend than a mother. I was angry at his dad, and was too tough on him to grow up. Despite me, he somehow retained his innocence: he didn't know what a kike was, and I idolized that brief moment of innocence. In a moment of subconscious foolishness, I stuck my hand in his pants before I could realize what I had done. Thank god he didn't realize at the moment what had happened. I remember we raced back to the house after that, and he won. He was still young, free of all the vices of society.

Lionel Monologue

Although I remember that day quite clear, one significant detail stands out. I lied to my mother’s face for the first time in my entire life. To this day, she still believes the reason I ran away was because of the incident where my dad was called a kike. In all honesty, that was not the reason at all. How could it be if I didn’t even know what that was?

That morning my dad didn’t wake me up before he left for work. Every morning before that he would wake me up and I would eat breakfast with him. Not that day. Being one of the only dads I know who worked during the summer, he made sure he spent as much time as possible with me before he left. When I finally awoke at about 9 o’clock, I realized what disaster had just occurred. In my four-year-old mind, I made the worst situation possible in my head. I believed my dad had ran away himself and didn’t wake me up because he would think I would try to stop him, which I would have. Well anyway, I panicked and told myself I would run away myself because I couldn’t stand to be alone with mom forever. I also wanted to be just like my dad and if he ran away, I would too. So that’s exactly what I did.

When my mom came down to try to get me to come back, I told her about the first thing that came to my mind and that was that dad had been called a “kite.” I wondered if that was offensive or not to call someone. Anyway, the reason why I cried is because I realized that it doesn’t matter if dad runs away because I would always have mom to care for me, just like she did that day. It almost seems like dad did run away considering the amount of time I see him these days.

BooBoo restrospective

The day Lionel ran into the boat was a sad day for me. That was the day I realized I could not protect Lionel from the world. That was the day i knew he would have to go through life with a label on him. He was already so sensitive, so innocent, and for him to be only four when he heard that slur, regardless of what he thought it meant. He had already taken offence to that word and at that moment I wished we could have sailed off on that boat together. I didn't want him to know that people would hate him simply because he was different. I had known that eventually he would figure out what he really heard, but I wanted to keep that day as far away as possible. So i told him it wasn't a terrible word. I told him to protect him, to shelter him just a little longer, so that he would not have to grow up for a while, so he could stay a child a little longer, so i wouldn't lose him. I never talked to Sandra about that day, my husband did not care what she had said. He had grown up with it, but I just did not want Lionel to grow up with it. I'm sure she regretted ever saying it. Lionel has grown up now, hes become such a real man. Although his wife has convinced him to become a catholic, i still cannot help but feel that me saving him from that hate, if even for just one more day, has helped him keep his heritage, remain proud of it and made his difficult childhood a little better. That day we raced back to the house, Lionel won, I saw that determination in his eyes, and that's when i realized that although the future might be tough for Lionel, when he finally meets the tough real world, that he would be ready, and that he would meet it head on.

monologue

I remember the day like it was yesterday. I was just a small boy, and very emotional. Small things would push me over the edge, and when it all became too much, I would leave. I started running away when I was two, and it was an escape for me. One day I heard Mrs. Snell and Sandra talking. They said my father was "a big, sloppy, kike" and while I was unsure exactly what it meant at the time, I knew it was bad and I knew they should not be saying such a thing about him. That's why I left. I ran off to the dinghy and decided that I would live there for ever and ever. I was just becoming comfortable with my resolution when my mother came along. She told me that everything was ok, and that I should come race her home. My mother did not often offer to run with me, and I knew she must be really desperate for me. Difficult as it was to break my resolution, and go back to the house where I knew Sandra and Mrs. Snell were still conversing, I ran back to the house for my mother's sake. And that is what happened the day I overheard a conversation from the kitchen.

Lionel Looking Back

I had heard Sandra call my father "a big sloppy kike" to Mrs. Snell. I was devastated. At the time, I thought a kike was one of those toys that is attached to a string that flies in the air on a windy day. However, it wasn't until two years later that I found out what it really was. I had been called one at school when I was being picked on by a group of boys, and my teacher explained to me that it was a bad word for Jews when I went to her in tears.

Anyway, as soon as I heard Sandra say this, I ran to the only place where I felt safe and at home: the boat. I liked being alone because I felt like no one understood me. I was really only comfortable when I was alone. I did not like opening up to anyone, not even to my mother. I stayed on the boat for several hours until I saw my mother walking slowly to the boat. I never felt like we saw eye to eye, and when she tried to make me open up, I refused (at first).

She tried everything. She tried making me talk, she tried playing along with the whole boat theme, and she even tried bribing me with gifts. I would not budge, and I only mumbled responses to her questions. When she tried climbing in the boat with me, I yelled at her and told her to get off. No one could invade my territory. I was a very stubborn child and was far from demonstrative unless I was pushed over the edge, and I needed to be alone. She wouldn't understand. Having my father called a "kite" was the worst thing I could've heard.

All the while, I felt my anger and sadness churning deep within. I had promised myself that I would not cry, but as my mother gave me a box (I can't remember exactly what was in it), I began to cry. My sadness had escaped and there was no stopping it. I confessed to my mother the horrible thing I had overheard earlier, and I was correct. She did not understand how traumatizing it was. Her response was "Well, that isn't too terrible." It was terrible to me, and now that I actually know what a kike is, that day seems even worse. My mother did cheer me up, though, and I believe she had a talk with Sandra later that night.

Ankles: Are they connected to war?

           While reading through the first three stories written by J.D. Salinger in his story collection, I couldn’t help but notice the constant mention of ankles. In Bananafish, Seymour is clearly obsessed with ankles, as he both grabs Sybil’s ankles a number of times, and also calls out the lady in the elevator for supposedly looking at his ankles. In Uncle Wiggily, the name itself refers to the ankle of Eloise when she fell and twisted her ankle. The name “Uncle Wiggily” was given to her ankle by Walt, her lover at the time. Lastly, in War with the Eskimos, while Ginnie is talking to Frederick, she notices him scratching multiple parts of his body. However, he specifically scratches his ankle multiple times, including when they were talking about Dick Heffner, the Lieutenant in the Navy that Ginnie’s sister was marrying.

            In fact, while writing this blog post, I’ve come to realize that all of these ankle situations tie back to the war as well. Seymour of course was in a war, therefore his connection with ankles. Walt, the lover of Eloise who gave the nickname “Uncle Wiggily” to her ankle ended up dying in the war. And Dick Heffner himself was a Lieutenant in the navy, and just as he is brought up, and ankle is too.  

Character Development

In all three Salanger stories, he has developed the characters so that they are similar to the characters in his other stories. In "It's a Perfect Day for Bannanfish", Seymour is a mysterious young man who has PDSD from his experiences in the war. Sybil is a young, adventurous, and creative girl. Muriel is an obnoxious, selfabsorbed, woman who love Seymour. In this story Muriel and Sybil are both affected by Seymours war experience because, for Muriel, she loses her husband when he shoots himself, and he treats Sybil strangely at the beach when he kisses her foot. It is likely that Seymour would not have done either of these things is he did not have the war dragging him down. In "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut", Walt is this guy who died in the war and has a very strange sense of humor. Eloise loved Walt very much, but has moved on and is now unhappily married. Eloise is affected by Walt's war experiences because he died, and without him she is unhappy. Eloise's husband is also affected by the death of Walt because it means that his wife will never be totally okay again. It's almost like Eloise has PDSD from the fact that she lost the love of her life. In "Just Before the War with the Eskimos", Ginnie's sister who, according to franklin, is annoying, and full of herself, is marrying a Lietenant Commander in the Navy. She is affected because he could die, and Franklin is affected because he still has feelings for Selena's sister.

There is always a man in the war, and two people who are somehow affected by this.

Young Women

A reoccurring focus by J.D Salinger in all three of his short stories is that most of his characters are younger women who have encountered issues in their personal lives. In Bananafish, Muriel is the young woman who was recently married and she encounters the issue of her husband's mental issue, which eventually leads to her being widowed at a young age. In Uncle Wiggily, although Eloise has a young daughter, the story focuses a lot on her past and her younger years when she was in love with Walt and how she encountered the issue of his death in the novel. In War With the Eskimos, Ginnie is confronted with the issue of confronting a "friend" about her economic issues and how they need to share the cost of the taxi. Just as Muriel and Eloise had men involved in their stories, Ginnie also seems very interested in Selena's brother, which may have taken her mind off of the money. In all of Salinger's short stories so far, we have seen young women who have been encountered with personal issues, all of which have included men.

End.

A pattern I have begun to notice in Salinger's stories is that while they bring up many unfinished points to wonder at throughout the story, the last line is generally the most curious or mysterious in the whole thing. The last line leaves you wondering, "Why did the character do that?". To serve as examples, the last line in "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" is, "Then he went over and sat down on the unoccupied twin bed, looked at the girl, aimed the pistol, and fired a bullet through his right temple.". The last line of "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut" is, "'I was a nice girl,' she pleaded, 'wasn't I?'". Finally, the last line of "Just Before the War with the Eskimos" is, "A few years before, it had taken her three days to dispose of the Easter chick she had found dead on the sawdust in the bottom of her wastebasket.". These final lines really make you question what the story was actually about, and who the characters really are. It makes you wonder what their motives were in doing exactly what was proclaimed in the last line, and almost forces you to imagine deep into the past of the characters. This is part of what is so curious about these stories. Salinger provides some of the story, but the rest is left to be interpreted by the reader.

How to Give Advice People Won't Take & Other Similarities

In both "Just Before the War with the Eskimos" and "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", J.D. Salinger has a character who he never refers to by name, but rather reveals their name through the dialogue of his other characters.  They are also called "boy" and "girl", even though they are both presumably old enough to be considered man and woman. Franklin in "Just Before the War with the Eskimos" is only referred to as "Selena's brother" until Eric arrives and asks Ginnie if she's seen him.  Franklin is also described as "the funniest-looking boy" even though we are told he is twenty-four (Salinger 63).  In "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", Muriel is continuously called girl by Salinger, and we only know her name because her mother says it.  We also find out that Muriel is married, which makes it strange that she should be referred to as "girl".  In both "Just Before the War with the Eskimos" and "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut", there are characters who drop out of college.  Eloise and Mary Jane both dropped out during their sophomore year, and Franklin quit as well, though we are not told when.  Another connection between these two stories is a camel's-hair coat.  "Eloise turned up the collar on her camel's-hair coat," shows that Eloise had one in "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" and Eric comments on Ginnie's coat by saying "It's the first really good camel's-hair [he's] seen since the war," in "Just Before the War with the Eskimos" (Salinger 27, 77).  "A Perfect Day for Bananfish" and "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" both have characters who try to help a friend or relative with their problem.  In "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut", Eloise talks about her old boyfriend, Walt, even though she is currently married to Lew.  While Eloise is talking about how funny Walt was, Mary Jane says "Doesn't Lew have a sense of humor?" (Salinger 42) She is trying to convince Eloise that her current husband is a good man, even though Eloise does not seem to like him.  Muriel's mother from "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" tries to warn Muriel that her husband, Seymour, "may completely lose control of himself." (Salinger 9) Although Muriel ignores this, Seymour does end up killing himself at the end of the story.  One of the largest connections between all three stories is the time period. They are all focused around World War II in some way.  In "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", Seymour's PTSD is a major component of the story. In "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut", Eloise loses her boyfriend to the war.  In "Just Before the War with the Eskimos", Franklin mentions that he could not be drafted for the army because he has a heart problem resulting from rheumatic fever during his childhood.  All three of the Salinger stories that we have read are connected in various different ways.

I've noticed a few patterns: ankles, war veterans, failed relationships, and camel hair coats.

Failed Relationships

One central theme in all three of the short stories is failed romantic relationships. In "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," the relationship between Seymour and Muriel is slightly short of a success, given that Seymour kills himself. In "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut," Walt, the man Eloise loves, dies, and Eloise therefore marries Lew, a man she does not love and has no respect for, and this marriage makes her miserable. Mary Jane also has bad luck with marriage, as she is married to a soldier for all of three months, during which time he gets in jail for stabbing another man. Even Ramona doesn't do to well with relationships. Jimmy Jimmereeno gets "runned over" and then Eloise forces Ramona to kill Mickey Mickeranno by making her roll onto him. In "Just Before the War with the Eskimos," Franklin tries to start a relationship with Joan, but she completely ignores him when he sends her letters. In all three short stories, relationships end in dismal failure.

Imaginative Children and High Maintenance Wives

In "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", we meet Sybil, who is a highly imaginative little girl. For example, when Seymour tells her the tale of the bananafish, she immediately claims to have seen one, and even gives details to back it up. "Did he [the bananfish] have any bananas in his mouth?" Seymour asks, and Sybil replies, "Yes. Six." (Salinger 24) In "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut", we meet Ramona, another extremely imaginative child. She has several imaginary friends, and believes in them so strongly that she sleeps on the far side of her bed at night to avoid hurting them. In "Just Before the War with the Eskimos", Franklin also seems like an imaginative individual, and while he is technically an adult, there is a childlike quality about him that is similar to the quirkiness shared by Sybil and Ramona. Another reoccurring theme in the three stories is that of high maintenance wives. In "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", Muriel comes off as somewhat vain, and seems to enjoy being pampered. Eloise from "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" is even more high maintenance. She complains about her life, including her husband's incompetence and her daughter's strangeness, and grieves over her college boyfriend Walt. Also, in "Just Before the War with the Eskimos", Serena says that her mother is sick with pneumonia and must not be disturbed. Thus, these two themes, high maintenance women and quirky and creative children, seem to come up frequently in Salinger's work.

Are Ankles and War Related?

In the first three stories of J. D. Salinger's Nine Stories, ankles and war stories are always brought up, usually related in some way. In "A Perfect Day For Bananafish", Seymour suffers from PTSD after fighting in the war. When he and Sybil are on the beach together, he grabs ahold of her ankles several times. This could possibly be as a result of the war. Maybe he lost one of his legs and cherishes ankles. Maybe he just likes ankles. In "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut", Eloise falls in front of her boyfriend, Walt, hurting her ankle. Walt, who ends up dying in the war, uses the term "Poor Uncle Wiggily" to refer to her ankle. Whenever Eloise thinks about Walt or her ankle, her memories are tainted with the poison of war and the death of Walt. Finally, in "Just Before the War with the Eskimos", Franklin seems to scratch areas of his body throughout the whole story. However, his favorite place to scratch seems to be his ankles, as it is mentioned several times. Not only that, but it only mentions Franklin's ankles when he and Ginnie are talking about her sister, a girl who Frankly clearly had feelings for despite calling her snobby. What makes this so interesting is that Joan (Ginnie's sister) is now engaged to a Lieutenant commander in the Navy who is fighting in the war. He scratches his ankles several times while talking about Joan and the war. In Salinger's first three stories, ankles and war seem to go hand in hand.

BannaFish

Does the constant use of numbers have a greater significance? Is Seymour a bannanafish, and all the girls at the hotel bannanas?

Banana Fish

Why does Muriel use "dear" so much when talking to her mother, it seems derogatory?
Is it possible that Seymour has the post dramatic stress disorder from the war causing him to act so profoundly?

Bananafish Questions, Cowper

Salinger mentions a blue coat in "A Perfect Day for Bananafish", does this have any connection to the blue coat worn by Holden Caulfield's sister?

What is it that finally pushes Seymour over the edge??

Bananafish Questions

Does Sybil's repeated questions about "the glass" have anything to do with the fact that Seymour's wife's name is Mrs. Glass? Was Seymour disturbed before the war, or was being at war a turning point in his personality?

BannanaPhone

Could the incident with the trees as well as Seymour's passion with feet be related to PTSD?

Could his suicide be related to the last step of the Koan, realizing he can no longer grasp his sanity after the incident in the elevator, and that he must instead let himself go, before coming something that he cannot control? 

Bananafish Questions

How is the relationship between Muriel and her mother affected by Seymour's problems?

Was Seymour's kissing Sibyl's foot related to his sudden anger at a woman staring at his feet?

Bananafish Questions

1. Why does Sybil claim she saw a bananafish after she and Seymour were hit by a wave?
2. Is Seymour's description of the manner in which the bananafish gets trapped and dies based on the Koan about the goose in a bottle, and, if so, why did Salinger base the bananafish off of this Koan?

Bananafish questions

1. Why does Sybil keep saying "see more glass"?

2. Why did the Seymour kill himself after seeing the woman looking at his ankles?

Bananafish Questions

Why does Seymour always grab Sybil's ankles and kiss the bottom of her foot?
Why does Seymour get upset when he thinks the woman in the elevator is looking at his feet?

Questions on Bananafish

1. What funny business with the trees is Muriel's mother talking about?
2. Why is Sybil so worried about the fact that Seymour was sitting with Sharon Lipschutz? Is she jealous?

Questions

What exactly is Seymour's "tattoo"? What does the little girl (Sybil) mean when she asks her mom about seeing more glass?

A recent piece on NPR about Salinger

NPR piece on Salinger