Fics & book reviews

[kangeiko]

Some of the things I owe to various people for the 5 things meme -

For monanotlisa,

Comments

[kangeiko]

Like Mark David Chapmann, who had the book with him when he killed John Lennon and professed to have read it ad infinitum as a teen?

You're gonna have to explain that one to me, 'cause I wasn't even born then, I don't think ('80? Right?), or if I was, I was in Communism. So. I know nothing, other than to recognise John Lennon as one of the Beatles. Did this Mark person think that Lennon was a 'phony'?

I did read the book as a teenager, in school, and went a bit easier on Holden than you did, plus it taught me some new English words I had not known until then, like "phony", but I don't think I ever read it again...

I don't know. In my head, this was a Depression book, although I'm probably wrong and it was a fifties book, or something. It read like a Depression book to me, which made me really hostile to Holden, who seemed ridiculously rich and spoiled to me - actually, he seems rich and spoiled no matter the setting (living in a hotel??). So, it might be a little odd, but in my head it was grouped with the Steinbeck novels, and a few of the other great Americana novels. And I just... didn't get it. I mean, I wanted to smack Holden upside his smug little head, and then set him on fire and push him under a bus. That can't be a good thing...

[selenak]

Actually, you can date the novel definitely long post depression, as Holden mentions seeing Laurence Olivier's movie version of Hamlet (which he doesn't like). It's set in the early 50s, when Salinger wrote it. And Holden is rich and spoiled, no matter the setting.

John Lennon, Mark David Chapman... wow. This is really a case of age difference. Chapman was a classic case of fanboy gone wrong, and yes, saw J.L. as having sold out and having become a phony. He waited with other fans in front of Lennon's New York home, got his autograph on the newest record of Lennon's, and then shot him. The other thing he had with him was Catcher in the Rye, and he was reading from it when they arrested him. He had modelled his life so much after John Lennon that he also married a Japanese American woman older than himself. (More extensive description of the incident is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lennon#Death)

[kangeiko]

Thanks, I'll check it out!