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Oct 08, 2009

brian rated it:

i know of three people who are totally obsessed with j.d. salinger:

john hinckley
mark david chapman
goodreads david

i know of four reasons why i (must) love this book:

1) because i don't want to see a list that looks like this:

ronald reagan
john lennon
goodreads brian

2) because in the early 80s salinger was a huge fan of the sitcom mr. merlin which was based on the premise -- wait for it… wait for it... -- that More...

36 comments like (54 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

David rated it:

If I can get serious for a moment, and cast aside the brittle, smartassed, persona that the social networking aspect of goodreads tends to bring out, I'd like to try to express what it is that drives me in this life. It is the following belief, instilled primarily by my mother, an exceptionally smart woman who never suffered fools gladly, but had the mitigating grace to be one of the warmest, most generous women you could ever hope to meet, as well as having one of the greatest voices you can im More...

31 comments like (39 people liked it)

Dec 30, 2010

Paul rated it:

If kidnappers had snatched up J D Salinger some time in the early 1970s, driven like madmen through the night and the next day too and imprisoned him in a small but pleasant room somewhere near Boise, furnished him with with all mod cons, and told him he wasn't going anyplace soon until he'd finished at the very least another nine stories, and at best three or four complete novels; and if the kidnappers - due to an endearing cocktail of naivete and compassion (because you know they were just lit More...

13 comments like (29 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Rolls rated it:

Salinger's "Nine Stories" should be renamed "How to Write Short Stories." While many hold up "Catcher in the Rye" as the zenith of his achievements for me it will always be this wistful and brave little book. I re-read it two or three times or year. I love it that much.

To be honest out of the nine stories collected here I would say that only a third are Salinger's best. "Perfect Day for Banafish," "For Esme - With Love and Squalor," More...

3 comments like (24 people liked it)

Dec 23, 2011

Mariel rated it:

It has been a long time since I read Nine Stories. For once I don't care about getting older. This wasn't about that. So I started rereading Nine Stories in my car on my work lunch breaks. Getting through the day necessities stuff. I really needed an old friend. I was at a loss in a bad depths of despair kinda way that I cannot put in a meaningful way that will mean shit to anyone else. I remembered Nine Stories was good to me. I'm in no mood for anything more than that. Friends.

This More...

3 comments like (11 people liked it)

Nov 20, 2011

Jeanette rated it:

This is one of "those" books. The ones where I turn the final page and sigh and wonder how I can convince other people that it's worth reading. Consider this: There are 30,520 ratings for this book here on Good Reads. The average of all those ratings is 4.18. Nothing I could say would be more convincing than that. Read it and marvel.

My two favorite stories are For Esme--With Love and Squalor, and Down at the Dinghy. I think I liked these best because I love the way More...

4 comments like (8 people liked it)

Mar 15, 2008

Noran rated it:

simply my best friend during a 21 day 1,800 mile solo road trip along the Oregon coast--14 years ago, after my mother's passage. i was 33 and this was the first time i had gonw anywhere and done anything alone like this ever. this book dined with me for lunch and dinner--charming and a delight.
others were jealous of us, and the fun we had. i read slow,just like sipping a fine wine--to make it last as long as possible.

yes i had other with me, and i sent boxes of purchases bac More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jun 17, 2007

Syd rated it:

Everyone has his or her own personal journey to follow. As a friend or relative, you can be there for them, offer advice and caution them when you see danger, but in the end, each person has to make a choice about how to live their lives. Only something inside of you will make a difference in you.

Just like Nemo and Marlin in Finding Nemo.

I finished J.D. Salinger’s Nine Stories last night. I find that I enjoy reading Salinger. Unlike my experience with Virginia Woolf, who More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Mar 09, 2007

Amy rated it:

The first and last of JD Salinger's Nine Stories are the best - A Perfect Day for a Bananafish and Teddy. All the stories have something to offer, though. I like Salinger's writing because he doesn't offer a tidy beginning or end. It's like he's saying "Here's the tidbit I'm giving you, so work with it or don't." There's no blatant theme that strings the stories together. Salinger's characters are psychologically complex, and often outsiders. Their method of thinking (if it's a s More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jul 04, 2007

Frederick rated it:

This is my favorite Salinger book. It's a collection of his stories, most or all of which appeared in THE NEW YORKER from about 1947 to 1960 or so.
I find a definite erotic appeal in these stories. The characters sit in bed, cradling the phone, smoking cigarettes in an eternal Sunday morning. You'd have to see NOW, VOYAGER for a more charged depiction of cigarette-smoking.
I believe these people exist. They are lonely, insistent and awkward. Somehow, they are beautiful. They are not de More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Peter rated it:

This is, I think, Salinger's best book. Begins and ends with a suicide, but oh well! In particular, "Perfect Day for Bannanafish" and "For Esme with Love and Squalor" and, maybe, "Teddy," are just amazing stories. There are about 15 stories I've read in my life that seem just perfect, and "For Esme" is one of them. It's probably the most affecting story about war that I've read (on par with "The Things They Carried"), though it actually dodges th More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 23, 2011

oriana rated it:

What is there to say? Salinger is brilliant. His ear is impeccable. The way his characters talk!! Ah me, it's just perfect. And the children! Goodness, these are the people for whom the word precocious was invented. Earnestly, touchingly, achingly precocious. And I don't even like children!

But the real point, of course, is that everyone and everything is just so sad. These are some of the saddest characters in literature, maybe. Everyone drinks too much, smokes too much, talks too mu More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 21, 2008

Blake rated it:

Searching the gamut of American literature will find you no author like J.D. Salinger, the master of layering highly debated topics into morose stories of all sorts. This collection of - as suggested by the title - nine short stories is my favorite work by the well-known penman. I recommend this work to first-timers of Salinger for its pick it up then put it down capability. The short stories flow beautifully, and are arranged in such a way that one is able to digest the quite separate topics More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 23, 2011

Dolly rated it:

Sitting anxiously on an unwieldy polypropylene chair and perusing one of those consummately moronic-fashion magazines to pass the time while waiting to be called in for my 5:45 appointment, I snarled and fawned at numerous depictions of girls lacking any vestige of verisimilitude. Eventually, benumbed by the thought of having to read a feature on how to make your own four-tier wedding cake, I plucked a book of short stories from my bag and began reading A Perfect Day for Bananafish. Funnily enou More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 18, 2008

Jil rated it:

I read seven of these stories my freshman year because I had a crush on someone that liked this book. I had railed against Catcher in the Rye and he said HEY, my lady, HEY - read this, you will like Salinger better.

He was, of course, right. Granted, Salinger suffers from uh, what most writers do - having a very limited area of expertise, which is often disguised by referring to this limitation as "STYLE". Salinger's STYLE is to write about wealthy, unhappy people, probably More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 01, 2008

Rob rated it:

I am kinda torn. The stories are rather varied and subtle, so its kinda pointless to go into at breif what I learned from the book; I would much rather review it. But I feel pretty inexpert at approaching these stories. They are rather short and I am a poor judge of short stories. They arn't incredibly varied, focusing on those New York or New England upper class subjects focused on a different plane of reality; be it intellectually, emotionally or metaphysical differences that set them apart. A More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 08, 2011

Jeremy added it

I've been apprehensive about Salinger since thoroughly loathing the Catcher in the Rye in high school. But what was so eye-rollingly bland to me about Holden Caulfield and his extended pity party is also what makes Salinger an incredible short story writer. He's able to create these small, delicate little domestic portraits of post-war Americans that have this precise, lighter-than air quality. And he writes little kids better than just about anyone. Yet these stories are often grounded by this More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 17, 2007

Kimberly rated it:

Salinger is my favorite author and a part of me wishes Catcher in the Rye wasn't as popular as it is, because it overshadows his other works. Holden isn't even a character of repeated focus; the Glass family is his true work of art. Some of the tales in Nine Stories are Glass pieces, and when you combine them with Franny & Zooey and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters / Seymour: an Introduction, you get a full view of the family with all its flaws. Rumor has it Wes Anderson based the Tenenbaum More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 23, 2008

Sarah rated it:

Can't believe I never read this before. One of the best things I've ever read.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Mohamadreza rated it:

یکی از بهترین مجموعه داستانهای کوتاهی که تا به حا خوندم -داریوش مهرجویی با اقتباس از داستان اول این مجموعه یعنی :یک روز خوش برای موز ماهی بخشی از فیلم پری رو ساخت و جذابیت شخصیت اصلی این رمان خود نویسنده را رها نکرد تا جایی که خود او بعد ها رمانی در باره ی این شخصیت نوشت :سیمور پیشگفتار-نجاران تیر های سقف را بالاتر بگذارید More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 25, 2011

Salman rated it:

سلینجر قلم اعجازانگیزی در ترسیم حالات درونی آدمهای داستان داره. در داستان "مرد خندان" تصویر کودکی را ترسیم میکنه که مسحور و شیفته داستان ساختگی مرد خندان شده و خودش را جزیی جدانشدنی از مردخندان میدونه. اما وارد شدن یک دختر نوجوان در داستان اون را به تقابل کودکی و نوجوانی میکشونه. داستان "دلتنگی های نقاش" که روایت بک مربی نقاشی جوان در یک موسسه نقاشی از راه دور است، درقالب تصحیح نقاشیهای دانش آموزان بدست مربی، به زیبایی رویاها و افکار آدمهای مختلف را ترسیم میکنه.
کتاب ترج More...

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Sep 20, 2011

Steven rated it:

Whenever I find myself bogged down with too many books which are emotionally, spiritually or physically taxing to read; works of history, philosophy, text books, etc. I turn to J.D. Salinger. His stories never cease to amaze me, and although I've read them a hundred times before, they always serve to re-ignite the fire inside me that keeps seeking out more literature. He taught me the joy of reading.

Salinger's gift is found primarily in the construction of character. Although most of More...

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Mar 28, 2011

Stephan rated it:

This is a review of Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey, and Nine Stories

I saw the famous, Spartan, Ballantine paperback copies of this novel (and Salinger's other two classics) at a used-book fair and figured I would reread it and delve into the ones I missed. As I read Catcher; I realized that in fact I had never read this book. And my reaction to Holden was much like others have expressed: annoyance. I suspect this book would have resonated with my younger self, but from my current More...

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Mar 06, 2011

Adam rated it:

Jenny adores this collection. She loves the title, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” and loves the story, “For Esme--with Love and Squalor.” She was thrilled to find a first edition hardcover of this book. Cradling it in my hands, careful not to weaken the spine, I fell hard for this book too. It’s probably cliché to say, but Salinger’s characterization of children is amazing. One of the stories involves the Glass family, and other stories are similar in the sense of showing the talent and int More...

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Jan 31, 2011

Tancredi rated it:

"I poeti stanno sempre a ficcare le loro emozioni in cose che non hanno emozioni"

Nove splendidi racconti dall'autore dell'imprescindibile giovane Holden. Voto tre stelline solo perché a darne quattro sfigurerei la sua più celebra opera. Ma davvero questi nove racconti non sono da meno.
Salinger è un raccontatore nato: il format del racconto gli calza a pennello. Sono storie stranissime, alcune affascinano, mentre altre sono decisamente spiazzanti. E altre ancora stordisco More...

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Jun 18, 2010

William rated it:

I really did like all nine. The writing's great, of course. The dialogue, especially. Although it gets kind of old when Salinger speaks too much from his own voice--I'm assuming the voice is his own because it keeps coming up in all that he's written. I'm sure you all remember the way he says something and then repeats it the next sentence with the prefix 'I mean.' I mean, I'm sure you all remember the way he says something and then repeats it the nextg sentence with the prefix 'I mean.' L More...

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Apr 04, 2010

Casey rated it:

Nine Stories starts off with A Perfect Day for Bananafish a gut wrenching story of a GI returning home not quite the same as the days before he left. This story gets you right between the ribs. It sticks there too. Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut is not any brighter. An alcoholic mother invites a friend of hers over for some afternoon drinks and gossip. There’s a forgotten child in this story, which made this piece of work the hardest for me to read. Sure these are dark stories. But there’s a light More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 11, 2010

Jeff rated it:

I bought this collection of short stories for my cousin about 8 years ago. She was then 13. I had read Catcher in the Rye and thought that a young girl might get something vivid and prolific from a novel about being a vivid and prolific social reject.

Eight years later, Salinger died and I read the book.

The nine stories contained in this aptly titled book were collected from various publications that Salinger patronized over his short and cryptic public writing career. More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 24, 2010

David rated it:

The bookend stories were the best. The attraction is to read these stories for some hints about the Glass family. I find something disturbing about this family, or more on target, the reaction of readers to the Glass family. Seymour could clip his toenails and readers would find in this activity some symbolic comment on The Eight Fold Path or perhaps, the essence of Zen in the manner Seymour tosses the clippings into an ashtray. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Sometimes you don't like a stor More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 15, 2010

Rick rated it:

This is the first Salinger I’ve read since Catcher in the Rye back when I was in high school. (Hint: Richard Nixon was President.) In short order I will a) likely read Salinger’s remaining two published books; b) re-read Catcher in the Rye; and c) join those who hope that the reclusive author continued to write, though not publish, throughout his long life and we might now expect posthumous masterpieces (a magical reversal of the publication afterlife of most deceased writers: see Hemingway, Ern More...

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