JD Salingers Next Effort

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

 

GD Phony Sequel to Catcher in the Rye

Holden Caulfield's damnation  ran " he is nothing but a Goddamn phony" It was a perfect motif for a teenager on the town in NY smoking and drinking until his money ran out or his parents reined him in. Both happened. The first antihero of literature for the modern age would have no part of anyone who smacked of a Goddamn phony in manner, dress, or being. Holden was brutal in smelling out the rats among NY society that he passed through like a ghost for three days. From hookers to musicians to bellhops to older women he measured all of them with his tell all barometer of originality.

Now we live in the age of Goddamn phonies. Even more so than Holden's 1950's America. Holden would have hated reality television and all the spin off phonies who become reality vampires in their own right. He would have hated our age of sequels and movies that copy other movies and books that copy other books. He would have hated cable television and probably people with IPODS, people with cellphones, and he sure as hell would have hated the Goddamn phony who wrote a sequel to Catcher in the Rye. For him, Holden would hold a special place in his heart.

Forget that the phoniest of phonies is not authorized to publish the book in the United States or Canada and that the press bringing it out is selling it in a few countries who don't care Salinger's estate tried to block publication. The reason Holden would hate this "writer" more than all others was because he hated people who sold out. What is more of a sell out than to take someone else's plot and use it for your novel? But of course only a GD phony would even attempt to write a sequel to a classic that millions have enjoyed.

There is some precedent. Someone wrote a spin off on Gone With the Wind titled The Wind Done Gone from the viewpoint of the slaves. There was a battle with the Mitchell estate and the book came out and then fell from site. The wind had done gone.  And I'm sure there have been others. But it does seem especially egregious someone should take this one of a kind novel, the first shot of the counter culture, and attempt to siphon off a little fame. Holden would certainly light up a fag, shoot down his Manhattan, cock an eyebrow, and  mutter, "what a Goddamn phony."

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/
Rocket Man will blast off in February

The New Generation doesn't get A Catcher in the Rye

 Read an article in the New York Times about the current generation not getting A Catcher In The Rye. “Why doesn’t he quit whining and take his Prozac,” some fifteen year old whined in a classroom discussion. The writer surmised Holden was dated and not relevant to our mega teen culture and that his disaffection might not happen today. Please. The new generation should be so lucky with their teenage suicide and obesity. Take your Prozac Holden? Well of course they said that because that’s how they deal with their problems. Take your Prozac pacifier and stay on course baby. Holden seems pretty well adjusted with his booze and cigarettes about now.


The real problem with this type of thinking is that Salinger’s book is about the very conformist reaction this generation is having. The main says stop whining or what a loser this prep school guy is, or get a job, take your Prozac, just shut up. Similar reactions are always voiced by the main on any novel presenting an antihero. On the Road, Catcher in the Rye, Revolutionary Road, Bright Lights Big City–these novels all present an alternative view of the main. People generally react negatively to these type of novels–that means the novels are doing exactly what they intended to do.

My last novel has met with similar criticism. I hear the groans now…so that’s why he is writing this. Not true. But Rocket Man is about a forty six year old man who loses his mind in one week in suburbia. The reviews have been many and there was a whole cadre of twenty somethings on Library Thing and other sites who said and I quote; ‘why doesn’t Dale Hammer get a life and quit whining…he should be bitch slapped.” In this way some readers just didn’t get it or these readers will never get it because they are on the other side of the road.

Teens are marketed too like never before, but their loneliness their angst, their suicides, their drugs, their pot, their alcohol, their overdoses, child pregnancies, drunk driving deaths, show us that corporate advertising campaigns are little substitute for interpersonal angst. Twittering and texting and Facebooking will not save anyone from an existential crisis and teen suicides prove the fact.

So to those who find Holden a bore or a whiner or a loser then I say give the book another read and this time look beneath the surface. When you read Hemingway’s Big Two Hearted River the first time you will see a story about a man going camping. Yeah so, big deal. Then when you read it again, maybe years later after you have just lost your best friend in a car wreck or your dad died or you came back from Iraq zonked out of your mind from a suicide bomber that blew your buddy into a red paste–you see a man going camping and looking for meaning again in a world that has none.

Oh my God–you mean what is happening on the surface isn’t the message? You bet your Prozakian Ritalin twittering whining soul it’s not. Read on.

http://www.billhazelgrove/
Forthcoming novel Rocket Man . The story of a man trying to hold onto his home.

Rest in Peace Holden--Review of Catcher in the Rye

It seems a lot of high schools are no longer using A Catcher in the Rye in their curriculum.You cannot be an American writer and not come to grips with "A Catcher in the Rye." The quintessential first person coming of age changed the bar for all writers when it's laconic wise guy narrator took the field and offended our sensibilities. He hated everyone and most of all himself. From then on whenever a first person novel came out with attitude the comparison to Holden Caulfield was inevitable.When my first novel Ripples appeared United Press International compared it to a Catcher in the Rye. I was ecstatic, then I noticed how many first novels were compared to this rock of contemporary literature.

If one had a first person narrator that threw off on institutions and people then there was a good chance this comparison would sneak in. Still, any writer who has read A Catcher in the Rye knows that there can be no real comparison to this novel because it really was a one of a kind.On the outside Holden seems offensive enough, but it is self knowledge that gets in the way of just another snotty spoiled rich kid. He wants sanity and he wants meaning, but in the world of 1950s New York between the hookers and the bars and his absent parents he can find only loneliness.

There in lies Holden's urban parable...the cold world of the young urban sophisticate looking for the answers. He after all only wants to be the Catcher in the Rye and catch the children. And of course the person he really wants to catch is himself. Rest in peace Holden.

William Hazelgrove's latest novel, Rocket Man, is due out in the fall
www.billhazelgrove.com

The Prozakian Generation--Catching Holden Caulfield

Read an article in the New York Times about the current generation not getting A Catcher In The Rye. "Why doesn't he quit whining and take his Prozac," some fifteen year old whined in some classroom discussion. The Times surmised Holden was dated and not relevant to our mega teen culture and that his disaffection might not happen today. Please. The Ritalin generation should be so lucky with their teenage suicide and obesity. Take your Prozac Holden? Well of course they said that because that's how they deal with their problems. Take your Ritalin Prozac pacifier and stay on course baby. Holden seems pretty well adjusted with his booze and cigarettes about now.

The real problem with this type of thinking is that Salinger's book is about the very conformist reaction this generation is having. The main says stop whining or what a loser this prep school guy is or get a job, take your Prozac, just shut up. Similar reactions are always voiced by the main on any novel presenting an antihero. On the Road, Catcher in the Rye, Revolutionary Road, Bright Lights Big City--these novels all present an alternative view of the main. People generally react negatively to these type of novels--that means the novels are doing exactly what they intended to do--giving us the unsanctioned viewpoint.

My last novel has met with similar criticism. I hear the groans now...so that's why he is writing this. Not true. But Rocket Man is about a forty six year old man who loses his mind in one week in suburbia. The reviews have been many and there was a whole cadre of twenty somethings on Library Thing and other sites who said and I quote; 'why doesn't Dale Hammer get a life and quit whining...he should be bitch slapped." In this way some readers just didn't get it or these readers will never get it because they are on the other side of the road. They are the light to the main characters darkness--or they are the bourgeoisie and the rebel is tweaking their nose.

The teen culture The Times cites is nothing more than corporate BS. Teens are marketed too like never before, but their loneliness their angst, their suicides, their drugs, their pot, their alcohol, their overdoses, child pregnancies, drunk driving deaths show us that corporate advertising campaigns are little substitute for interpersonal angst. Twittering and texting and face booking will not save anyone from an existential crisis and teen suicides prove the fact.

So to those Yo Wannabes who find Holden a bore or a whiner or a loser then I say give the book another read and this time look beneath the surface. When you read Hemingway's Big Two Hearted River the first time you will see a story about a man going camping. Yeah so, big deal. Then when you read it again, maybe years later after you have just lost your best friend in a car wreck or your dad died or you came back from Iraq zonked out of your mind from a suicide bomber that blew your buddy into a red paste--you see a man going camping and looking for meaning again in a world that has none.

You are beginning to decode the mystery of literature--oh my God--you mean what is happening on the surface isn't the message? You bet your Prozakian Ritalin twittering whining soul it's not. Read on.
http://www.billhazelgrove.com/