Salinger - Hardcover

David Shields; Shane Salerno

3.75

1,692 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1471130371 ISBN 13: 9781471130373

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK, 2013

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The huge success of The Catcher in the Rye (1951) brought JD Salinger (1919-2010) lasting fame. But the attention made him increasingly reclusive and, though he never stopped writing, he published his last story in 1965. This companion to a 2013 documentary, co-written by its director, is an 'oral biography' that reveals the man inside the mystery by presenting the recollections of relatives, lovers, friends and colleagues in their own words, together with Salinger's private letters and more than 175 photos.

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Review:

A stupendous work of research. . . . hugely impressive . . . I predict with the utmost confidence that, after this, the world will not need another Salinger biography -- (Sunday Times) )

An explosive new biography . . . Shields and Salerno have pulled off several coups . . . impressively non-judgmental (Daily Telegraph) )

A fresh look at J.D. Salinger s triumphant, traumatic, tawdry life . . . [Salinger] presents a decade s worth of genuinely valuable research (Time) )

Eloquently written and exhaustively reported . . . Salinger is an unmitigated success. . . . Shields and Salerno have struck journalistic gold. Salinger is a revelation, and offers the most complete picture of an American icon, a man deified by silence, haunted by war, frustrated in love and more frail and human than he ever wanted the world to know. . . . A startlingly revealing story -- USA Today)

Revealing . . . a sharp-edged portrait (New York Times) )

Unprecedented . . . A masterwork . . . An exquisitely researched and beautifully engineered piece of storytelling about one of modern history s most enigmatic personas -- Maria Popova (Brain Pickings) )

Salinger gets the goods on an author s reclusive life . . . It s the most common story in the world, and it strips away the sheen of his exceptionalism, trading in his genius for something much more real (Los Angeles Times) )

David Shields and Shane Salerno crack open the mythos of the reclusive author. . . . Salinger is the thorny, complicated portrait that its thorny, complicated subject deserves. . . . The book offers the most complete rendering yet (The Washington Post) )

Engrossing (The Wall Street Journal) )

Taken as a whole the memories, the documents, the pictures the book feels as close as we'll ever get to being inside Salinger s head (Entertainment Weekly) )

Providing by far the most detailed report of previously unreleased material, the book . . . both fleshes out and challenges aspects of the author s legend. . . . [Salinger] has new information well beyond any possible posthumous fiction (Associated Press) )

Refreshingly frank . . . thrillingly told . . . Salinger amply documents the author s youthful arrogance and selfishness, his infatuation with his own cleverness and his inability to see the world from the perspective of anyone who wasn t a lot like himself (Salon) )

An explosive biography (People) )

Thoroughly revealing . . . This book helps defend the affirmative response and whets the appetite for the Salinger books to come --(Kirkus Reviews)

About the Author:

David Shields is the author of two novels, Dead Languages and Heroes; a collection of linked stories, A Handbook for Drowning; and three previous works of non-fiction. He is a professor in the English department at the University of Washington.

Shane Salerno is the writer, producer, and director of Salinger, the highly anticipated documentary film about J. D. Salinger that will premiere theatrically in September 2013.

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