My Salinger Year
The title of
the book by Joanna Smith Rakoff, which appeared in June 2014, created a stir in
the literary circles. J.D. Salinger fans
grabbed copies of My Salinger Year to peek into the world of the reclusive
writer. Salinger, the creator of the
Glass Family stories and two priceless works of writing – The Catcher in the
Rye and Franny and Zooey- remained shrouded in mystery throughout his career in
writing. When he died in 2010, the world knew as little about him as aliens from
outer space; conjectures and speculations continued to thrive. The mere mention
that this book was a chronicle of the days that Rakoff spent working as an assistant in the literary house of the century’s
giant, piqued curiosity of many readers.
The first quick read became both a discovery
and a disappointment. The latter because at the culmination of the exercise, we
are nowhere near more familiar with Salinger. On the contrary, the chance
meeting of Rakoff with Salinger in the
office, resounding of a loud remote voice on the phone asking for his literary
agent often, and the strict dictum issued by Rakoff’s boss, “but you must never – never, never, never –
give out his address or phone number," further thickens
the cloud of mystery around the
taciturn author, without giving any further cue to his persona.
Rakoff’s
admission that she had never read Salinger in her 23 years of her study life ( she
thought him “insufferably cute and aggressively quirky”) transforms into devotion during her sojourn at the agency,
reading his works and then answering the
deluge of fan mail meant for Salinger. She cannot bring herself to throw
letters from Holden Caulfield-like characters (who seem at their wits and
desperately need to connect to the creator) into the bin after writing a
perfunctory coded answer. The entire experience changes her irrevocably, and
she sees herself caught in a superficial world (which applies to her dad, live-
in boyfriend and the fast changing publishing world) overflowing with phoniness
and brutality. Rakoff’s passage from naivety, idealism and purity to stoicism
and acceptance, with a rough intervening phase of emotional turmoil, is a nostalgic Franny Glass experience. It gives the book a Salingeresque edge, of lost
innocence; and becomes a pleasant discovery for the reader.
The theme of
innocence lost is very interestingly also interwoven with the delineation of
the ‘world of books.’ The story is set in the late nineties, the pre-digital
era on the cusp of a metamorphosis and yet a space still clinging to antiquated
Dictaphones and heavy typewriters and the power of words. The agency represents
heavyweight older authors, defining an age where the word was sacred and
supreme and writing was a culture and not a business. When the duo, the writer
and the literary house, formed a committed relationship in the sanctimonious
service of the word, and did not view it as a trade to a fortune. A climate where
budding artists still thought that they had to work as assistants to legendary
literary figures and publishers; to garner the best education; on the road to becoming
great poets and authors themselves.
That Rakoff was able to
morph a 2000-word article written in 2010, after Salinger passed away(My Adventures Answering J.D. Salinger’s Mail) into a
complete book is a feat in itself. But what is more amazing is her accomplishment to imbue the ambience in the book with a
Salingeresque essence. Reading the coming of age story of Rakoff, the reader is
transported to the world of Franny and Zooey, Seymour and Buddy and the
legendary Holden Caulfield. Lives of characters who waged battles within, on
the road to understanding the world for what it is: a hypocritical illusion
which in the name of love trades love and souls. Veneers of false pretence, of
unscrupulous crafty humans, yes, but a complete 360 degree turn and the same
finger of hypocrisy points to one’s own self. Duality and falseness stripped to
the core to show your naked dark self. Finally, the journey will culminate in a
merging, with a love beyond barriers of all human creed, doubts and fears. A rendezvous with Seymour’s Fat Lady; a moment
where your love flows as a clear cascading stream to subsume everything you
thought was repulsive and dirty. A cleansing
that renders you and the world into a sparkling hue of light. Salingeresque achieved!
Thank
you, Joanna Rakoff!
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