Two writers who have had a major impact on me have died in the past two days. The Catcher in the Rye was one of those books that skewered my teen-age angst and hung it up to dry with everyone else’s teen-age angst. I knew I wasn’t alone after meeting Holden Caulfield, and for that I am grateful to Salinger.
Reading Howard Zinn, hearing him speak, has helped me to relinquish the safety of silence and speak up (see his quote in my new Notable Quotable block) — sometimes more easily and loudly than at other times. Thank you, Howard Zinn, for sharing your recipe for trouble.
I almost posted about Salinger this same day, but didn’t. I remember reading Catcher in the Rye in high school. I am sure hundreds of writers would say the same thing, but it was the first book I ever read and thought, “If I could ever be a writer, I would want to write like this.” That book, and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, were the two most impactful books on me wanting to be a writer. Which is a little ironic, b/c both of them are very “down” books. But the one thing they had in common is brutal, raw honesty. I admire that in a person, in a book and in a writer.
It’s interesting that Salinger kept on writing but ended up having NO interest in publishing anything after a while. Legend has it that there are a bunch of Salinger manuscripts (so I’ve read) in a safe in New Hampshire.
Everything about Sylvia Plath is so sad I think.