Came across short stories of J D
Salinger. Read two stories so far – "For Esme –
with Love and Squalor" and "A perfect day for Bananafish".
It is part of Nine Stories, so few more of this kept for the weekend, like
saving few more servings of a delicious food for later.
These stories had such a strange
concoction that I ended up searching for the meaning of it. Why did Seymour
Glass shoot himself, what finally prompted him? Why did Sergeant X feel sleepy
finally after reading Esme’s letter? Turns out these stories have so much of
symbolisms that each are like a crossword puzzle. Distaste towards materialism,
failure to communicate, loss of innocence, loneliness – a whole lot of it is
said in so few words, each sentence open for interpretation, containing back
stories on motivations, philosophies and intentions.
Now that makes the readers think
to find out why he said something in that particular manner and different
people are reading different meanings to it. Found a very good analysis of Bananafish
and a good article about For
Esme, but there is so much so that some people have even done research
thesis on the language, signs, symbols in these short stories. Finding
clues from the sentences beyond the direct meaning is making this way more
interesting..
I had read Catcher in the Rye and
Franny and Zooey years back, now after this, re-reading them might be a good
idea to see how much of the puzzle I can piece together.
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