Re: jewish characters in Salinger
Paul Kennedy (kennedyp@toronto.cbc.ca)
Fri, 18 Jun 1999 11:00:06 -0400 (EDT)
Hey Camille:
I feel like I'm about to appear naked before the bananafishbowl.... You
asked:
>
>By the way, I've got a 20-odd hour bus ride approaching, can anyone
>recommend some reading material to a lover of Salinger, Nabokov, Mansfield
>et al? Something entertaining but not *too* easy. I plan to take half my
>weight in books with me, lots of stuff I've always meant to read, e.g. `Day
>of the Locust' by Nathaniel West.
>
>
Now, I know that I've already sent you a list of my top ten Canadian
authors. But I'm now going to sugggest four writers whose work is so
unfashionably low-brow (read: popular) that I suspect I'm supposed to be
embarassed about recommending them.
TOM ROBBINS (forget EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES, and go directly to an
early novel named ANOTHER ROADSIDE ATTRACTION)
ARMISTEAD MAUPIN (once you start TALES OF THE CITY, I predict that you'll
find it impossible to stop before reading ALL the 'novels' in the series....
Comparisons to Dickens are totally appropriate--especially since this soap
opera was initially serialized in some San Francisco newspaper....)
JAY McINERNY (sp?) ...try the early novel about Japan, I forget what it's
called.... I also enjoyed the more recent book that's set in the deep
South....
MARK SINGER.... I read IRON AND SILK (is that the title?) when I was living
in China, and I was amazed that an American could capture things so
perfectly....
Now that I've put my pedestrian tastes in full view of the bananafishbowl, I
suspect that no one will ever believe I also LOVE Tolstoy, Chekov and
Dostoyevsky.... and Salinger, of course.
Cheers,
Paul