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by: J.D. Salinger
List Price: $13.99Amazon.com's Price: $11.19 You Save: $2.80 (20%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780316767729
ISBN: 0316767727
Label: Back Bay Books
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: January 30, 2001
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Sales Rank: 69442
Studio: Back Bay Books
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Since the publication of The Catcher in the Rye in 1951, the works of J.D. Salinger have been acclaimed for their humor, intensity, and their lack of phoniness. A collection of short fiction, Nine Stories contains works with those qualities that make Salinger such a well-loved author.
Amazon.com Review:
In the J.D. Salinger benchmark 'A Perfect Day for Bananafish,' Seymour Glass floats his beach mate Sybil on a raft and tells her about these creatures' tragic flaw. Though they seem normal, if one swims into a hole filled with bananas, it will overeat until it's too fat to escape. Meanwhile, Seymour's wife, Muriel, is back at their Florida hotel, assuring her mother not to worry--Seymour hasn't lost control. Mention of a book he sent her from Germany and several references to his psychiatrist lead the reader to believe that World War II has undone him.
The war hangs over these wry stories of loss and occasionally unsuppressed rage. Salinger's children are fragile, odd, hypersmart, whereas his grownups (even the materially content) seem beaten down by circumstances--some neurasthenic, others (often female) deeply unsympathetic. The greatest piece in this disturbing book may be 'The Laughing Man,' which starts out as a man's recollection of the pleasures of storytelling and ends with the intersection between adult need and childish innocence. The narrator remembers how, at nine, he and his fellow Comanches would be picked up each afternoon by the Chief--a Staten Island law student paid to keep them busy. At the end of each day, the Chief winds them down with the saga of a hideously deformed, gentle, world-class criminal. With his stalwart companions, which include 'a glib timber wolf' and 'a lovable dwarf,' the Laughing Man regularly crosses the Paris-China border in order to avoid capture by 'the internationally famous detective' Marcel Dufarge and his daughter, 'an exquisite girl, though something of a transvestite.' The masked hero's luck comes to an end on the same day that things go awry between the Chief and his girlfriend, hardly a coincidence. 'A few minutes later, when I stepped out of the Chief's bus, the first thing I chanced to see was a piece of red tissue paper flapping in the wind against the base of a lamppost. It looked like someone's poppy-petal mask. I arrived home with my teeth chattering uncontrollably and was told to go straight to bed.'
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Salinger's Little Worlds
This is a collection of short stories and vignettes which act as snapshots of the lives of the characters within them. Some are rather short and feel a bit incomplete or idle, but I think this was intended by Salinger so as to not bog down the reader with overt themes or ideology and simply to show moments in peoples' lives. I'm thinking particularly of 'Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut', 'Just Before the War with the Eskimos', 'Down at the Dingy' and 'Pretty Mouth and Green Eyes' when I say that some ... Read More
Rating: - Nine Stories More Than Just Bananafish
Nine Stories is a famous collection. "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" has lost none of its power to shock. To experience the vitality and humor of Seymour's conversation with the little girl on the beach - the ending is sad and inexplicable, and of course the Glass family is terribly wounded as a result. This story is a must-read, but so is "For Esmé with Love and Squalor" (a moving story about traumatic stress and the healing power of love,) and "Teddy," a unique and funny story about a 10-year old ... Read More
Rating:  - Salinger Hits Nine Home Runs.
Published after The Catcher in the Rye (1951), Nine Stories is quintessential Salinger. Having first read Salinger's collection of Nine Stories as a college student, these short stories have remained in my thoughts for years.
"A Perfect Day for Bananafish" (first published in the The New Yorker, January 31, 1948) tells the story of war veteran Seymour Glass, who commits suicide while on his honeymoon with his wife, Muriel, in Florida. While Muriel discusses fashion with her mother at the ... Read More
Rating: - Nine glories
What is the opposite of "prolific"? Answer: J.D. Salinger. The reclusive author has a rather meager output compared with other writers of his stature, but the extraordinary quality of his work has assured his exalted place in American letters. Though I was impressed by "Catcher in the Rye," I found it to be a bit overrated. (I intend to reread it someday to see if I'm really willing to stand by that statement.) For me, it is the short fiction in this volume that truly reveals his talent. Salinger ... Read More
Rating:  - "Catcher in the Rye" was better
"Catcher in the Rye" is one of my favourite novels of all time, and after my second reading of it, I decided to move on to reading J.D. Salinger's other works, assuming that I would also enjoy these. Unfortunately, "Nine Stories" is no "Catcher in the Rye" and I was sorely disappointed.
As the title suggests, "Nine Stories" comprises nine short stories, most of which were originally published in "The New Yorker" in the years following the publication of "Catcher in the Rye". Just as "Catcher ... Read More
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