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 9/11 Essays in the Attic

Right after 9/11 I was gripped like everyone else and felt I had to do something. So I came up with the idea of getting responses on the tragedy from other authors. I contacted authors I knew and authors I didn't know and came up with quite a list. Everyone from Scott Turow to Rick Bragg to Dave Barry. I collected the essays and started about trying to find a publisher. We found several who were interested and my agent prepared to set up the deal.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/2001-10-18-writers.htm


But in the chaotic days after September 11 everyone was struggling with how to get a handle on this tragedy. Some publishers said it was too soon. Others said they were being swamped with 9/11 projects. Some thought 9/11 would fall from the public consciousness. One publisher proposed to put it in a shoe box with other mementos. We were never quite sure how that would work.

Finally an editor wanted to take the project on. The day he was to make the deal he lost his job. The essays went into a folder and began to gather dust. I took them out today and read through some of them. What jumps out at you is the feeling of anything could happen. These are authors who make a living out of writing books and they wrote like men and women under fire.  The frantic quality of the writing is something you would expect out of someone who has lived through the Holocaust.

But that is the way it was then. You just didn't know what was next. One world vanished and another world began. Even our polarized country can be attributed to the politics of fear that began after 9/11. I suppose that is what these essays are all about. Fear. And it is a pity they never saw the light of day because they are as historical as any letters from World War II. I guess all wars are about fear. America  knows what that's all about now.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/
William Hazelgrove's latest novel is Rocket Man.