Maybe you have heard that JD Salinger will begin publishing again starting in 2015. His estate has left specific instructions to dribble out the novels he has been working on for the last fifty years. The question is will they be any good? There apparently is a WWII romance and something else that is expands the Holden Caulfield character. Salinger made a career out of disappearing and saying nothing about his next novel.
But now we know they are coming. And I would have to say that most people will be disappointed. There can only be one Catcher in the Rye and this is probably why he did not publish further. How could you follow up that novel? You don't. Same with Harper Lee. How do you follow up To Kill A Mockingbird? You don't. Interesting that both authors never published again.
But the fanfare will be mighty and the sales will be huge. But after that when it all dies down you are talking about a man who hid in New Hampshire for half a century importing young women to live with him at various times. He went into a time warp and sadly we will probably see something historical come out of those New Hampshire woods.
Catcher in the Rye was brilliant because no one had done it. No one had turned the novel on it's head with this antihero. It was stunningly contemporary and predicted the future of literature and movies. The antithesis of this would be something published forty years after it was written in isolation. We have probably seen the best JD Salinger has to offer and the rest will be the manuscript authors all have that never see the light of day. Until they are gone.
www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher...sometimes a dream is all you have
But now we know they are coming. And I would have to say that most people will be disappointed. There can only be one Catcher in the Rye and this is probably why he did not publish further. How could you follow up that novel? You don't. Same with Harper Lee. How do you follow up To Kill A Mockingbird? You don't. Interesting that both authors never published again.
But the fanfare will be mighty and the sales will be huge. But after that when it all dies down you are talking about a man who hid in New Hampshire for half a century importing young women to live with him at various times. He went into a time warp and sadly we will probably see something historical come out of those New Hampshire woods.
Catcher in the Rye was brilliant because no one had done it. No one had turned the novel on it's head with this antihero. It was stunningly contemporary and predicted the future of literature and movies. The antithesis of this would be something published forty years after it was written in isolation. We have probably seen the best JD Salinger has to offer and the rest will be the manuscript authors all have that never see the light of day. Until they are gone.
www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher...sometimes a dream is all you have
