Franny and Zooey - J.D. Salinger

This is J.D. Salinger's intricately descriptive story showing the relationship between two remarkably well sketched sibling characters. Broken into two different episodes, the reader is first introduced to Franny, the youngest of the seven famously precocious Glass children (also mentioned in a few of Salinger's Nine Stories and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction), grown past her early genius into a beautiful and concerned 20-year-old undergraduate who's exposure to a mysterious religious text has left her teetering on the edge of a mental collapse. The second, much longer section - Zooey - picks up focus on the Glass family's youngest son, Franny's older brother. Zooey, 25, is an actor by trade. Through a conversation with the title characters' mother we discover Franny is home and indisposed. The story flows through beautifully realistic dialogue and though very little actually happens in the plot, enough is revealed about the characters to make this a compelling and entertaining read.

Worth Reading
3.5 out of 5
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Welcome to the Monkey House - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Spanning nearly two decades and covering the breadth of Vonnegut's topics, Welcome to the Monkey House is inconsistent in both style and quality. The stories very from the inane domestic scenarios of 'Go Back to Your Precious Wife and Son' and 'Long Walk to Forever' (clearly aimed at the postwar housewife) to weird science fiction comedies, including 'Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.' The latter type are mostly concerned with overpopulation and the morality of scientific advancement, two issues he seems to have dwelled heavily on in those years. In this collection, frequent Vonnegut readers will find familiar characters (e.g. band director George Helmholtz) and ideas seen in other works, such as volunteer suicide and compulsory handicaps. A couple of the pieces are terribly boring, a few are highly original and amusing, and the story 'Harrison Bergeron' is one of the few examples of a written work that improved in its adaptation to film.

Um?
2.5 out of 5
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Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymor: an Introduction - JD Salinger

I was nearly finished with these two novellas before I realized that they were fiction - had it not been for a small disclaimer on the copyright page, I would have gone on believing it all to be fact. While fact or fiction makes little difference, my belief is testament to Salinger's uncanny ability to create true characters - his love and understanding of his subjects is present in every word and phrase. That said, these two pieces are essentially character sketches (or detailed compositions) rather than plot-driven stories. Differing greatly in style, both focus on Seymour, one of Salinger's most intriguing characters - an enigmatic, brilliant, rude, doomed young man, and member of the Glass family, which appears in many of the author's published works (which are few).

WORTH READING
3.5 out of 5
Buy this book: Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction

Rabbit, Run - John Updike

A 26 year old, married, ex-high school basketball star known as Rabbit runs away from his child, pregnant wife, and small home town only to end up living in the connecting small town with a prostitute. "If you have the guts to be yourself," Rabbit says, "Other people'll pay your price." The protagonist is excruciatingly selfish and throughout seems numb to the effects of his actions, though his moments of remorse reveal he is acutely aware. Updike plays to the common American urge towards escapism, typically quelled by a carefully ingrained sense of responsibility. Rabbit's motives are left ambiguous, even to himself, though it becomes obvious his solution to his problems is (and always has been) sex. Rabbit, Run is a well written, non-intrusively didactic story that follows a lost and irresponsible young man through his struggles, fraught with intriguing, believable characters and a fast plot which plowed the way for 3 sequels and a novella.

Worth Reading
3 out of 5
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Buy: Rabbit Angstrom: The Four Novels

Another Country - James Baldwin

A powerful novel of strained racial and sexual relations within a small group of friends in new York City. Another Country shows the harsh reality of life tainted by denial and jealousy, happiness shadowed by self-deceit, and the effects of selfish actions perpetrated under the pretense of loneliness that cause more pain than relief.

As a result of change, the characters grow increasingly out of touch with themselves and their established lives; each caught up in their own self pity, they fail to realize those they are leaning on also stand cracked and shaking. Between these personal battles also fester the societal wounds of racial intolerance (both on the part of whites and blacks) and prejudice against homosexuality. Despite the somewhat over-used setting of New York (even in the 60s) this novel charges into some of the most important issues that continue to plague the "land of the free." Another Country should be required reading for anyone who considers themselves to be American.

IMPORTANT!
4 out of 5
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Babylon Revisited and Other Stories - F. Scott Fitzgerald

As the title hints, this collection of ten short stories, which were written between 1920 and 1937, has a thick strand of sentimentalism running through tis course. Though all are well written (it's Fitzgerald) few stand out as particularly strong or original, and the ones that do (e.g. 'A Diamond as Big as the Ritz') do so because they are not about a person missing people or places. Fitzgerald's long descriptive sentences and obsession with possibility (both past and future) creates the usual dynamic and believable cast of big money New England educated characters. Most of the stories sit heavily on the "coming of age" theme, which might explain why I liked the book much more when I read it in high school. Babylon Revisited would be better if read over an extended duration of time; power reading it in a few days as we did left the stories repetitive and stripped them of their power as individuals. Not as much fun as Six Tales of the Jazz Age or The Pat Hobby Stories, but an impressive work nonetheless and a must read for Fitzgerald enthusiasts.

WORTH THE READ
3 out of 5
Buy this book: Babylon Revisited: And Other Stories
Download for Kindle: Babylon Revisited

Setting Free the Bears - John Irving

Despite the insipid title, the novel leaps off quickly into a highly readable adventure that brings together motorcycles, carnivores, Nazis, terrorists, and bees. The obvious metaphor looms all along but enough sharp turns and sudden doozies keep it from swallowing the story. A crash of sorts brings things to a halt, whereupon the focus turns to picking up the pieces, convalescing, and tying up loose ends. This book, written with quick language and sectioned into manageable, brief segments, never demands too much from the reader but provides enough sustenance to make it worthwhile. Readers of A Prayer for Owen Meany will notice a few glimpses of common themes, such as elaborate pranks and contemptuous obsession with the news and severed digits.

WORTH THE READ
Rating: 3 out of 5
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