Book Review: Franny and Zooey is two parts of what J.D. Salinger envisioned as a complex web of stories about the seven precocious Glass siblings, who had difficulty accepting a superficial world and believed there was something more to life than what was apparent. Salinger writes with his usual distinctive voice and a keen awareness of the telling detail: he doesn't layer the specifics, but those he selects speak loudly. The usual preoccupations are here, an obsession with childhood innocence, disappointment with the adulthood that follows.
The short story "Franny" is about the youngest Glass child, now attending college, frustrated by life and having difficulty facing the grown-up choices before her. She is slowly falling apart, as a psychological storm roils beneath the surface of a lunch with her boyfriend. She has turned to religion (as embodied in The Way of a Pilgrim, an actual book) as one way to deal. Zooey follows chronologically from "Franny," the sister now home with her mother and brother after the lunch, and still sinking into a mental breakdown. We see Zooey and their mother talking bluntly (an understatement) about his issues, and then Zooey and Franny talking about more issues. Much of the story seems intended to fill in the background of the Glass family. I much preferred "Franny" to Zooey, more immediate, more compelling and focused. But both were good (and in both stories the characters smoke like fiends), and any Salinger fan interested in the Glass family must read them. [4★]
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