This week we read a couple long stories (novellas, maybe?) by this guy named J.D. Salinger. Maybe you’ve heard of him? These two pieces are usually packaged together, and both concern Seymour Glass, and more generally the Glass family, who make appearances in a number of other Salinger stories. Most notably, perhaps, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” “Franny,” and “Zooey.” Anyway, we read these two things and we talked about them and we recorded it and now you can put our conversation in your ears if you want. Technology!
Discussion points include: discursive narrators, old-fashioned storytelling, the pleasures of being a recluse, and which generation is the worst generation.
As always, you can stream the episode right here on our site, by clicking on the little player thingy below. Or download the mp3 file. Or visit us in iTunes, where you can subscribe (for free) and never miss another installment. If you want to support the show, we’ll gladly take your donation, and will write a blurb for you to be read on the air. Or you can click on any of the Powell’s links around the site, to support both us and a great indie bookstore. If you use those links to get to their site, anything you buy will throw a little money our way.
Thanks for listening!
Stream:
Download Episode 65 (right-click, save-as)
July 21, 2014 at 2:49 pm
I can’t download the episode, I don’t think the download link is enabled. (I don’t have i-tunes so I can’t get it from there).
July 21, 2014 at 3:01 pm
Thanks for letting us know, Chris. Link should be fixed now!
July 23, 2014 at 1:31 pm
I agree, the documentary was highly disappointing. FWIW, Wikipedia cites Publishers Weekly and claims the two-story anthology of Roof Beams and Seymour outsold all but two other novels in the United States in 1963, the year the book was released. And I remember my parents having a copy of Franny and Zoey in our house in the 1970’s though neither had gone to college so it, too, had some level of popular appeal. Anyway, great show. Thanks.