Book Review: Three Early Stories is an oddity of a book, but an interesting one that seems to have gone largely under the radar. The stories were written before Salinger's participation in the war and before be'd been published in The New Yorker. They seem to predate the appearance of the Glass family in his writing. As such they don't quite belong in the canon, but are valuable nonetheless as I want to read everything Salinger wrote and these are well worth reading for the hints of Salinger yet to come. The Three Early Stories are good, if small, stories in that distinctive Salinger voice. They're almost simply character studies, or even just character glimpses. Strongly reminiscent of Fitzgerald, there's a sketch of a dissatisfied but uncertain Manhattanite party girl, an independent young woman who's part of the changing times, and a young man going off to war, hit hard by what he's leaving behind. A very short book, as these are very short pieces. Mandatory for the Salinger fan or completist, not so much for anyone else. [3½★]
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