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 Tough Sledding at Times March 9, 2010
John F. Rooney
Reading "Franny and Zooey" is like watching a not-so-good Woody Allen film: mannered, smart-alecky, brittle, neurotic, New Yorkery, overly talky, quirky, boring, infuriating, annoying, show-offy, and just simply tiresome.
The book consists of two stories. "Franny is 41 pages long, and "Zooey" is 155 pages long. In her story Franny is exasperating and egotistic as she argues with her college date in a New Haven restaurant at lunch before a college football game. She drinks too much and has obviously come close to a mental break-down by overdoing her repetition of the Jesus prayer.
"Zooey" starts with a long argument/discussion between Zooey and his mother Bessie in the bathroom of the Glass Manhattan apartment while Zooey is in the tub, and the mother is apparently seated on the toilet. Everyone smokes an awful lot in both stories.
The second part of the story is a long argument/diatribe between Zooey and Franny in the Glass living room in which Zooey talks about the Jesus prayer and says it's very convenient that Franny has come home after the New Haven confrontation to have her nervous break-down in the comfort of her own home. Zooey is clever enough, after a terrible amount of palaver, to give Franny some comfort and peace of mind though.
Bessie and Les Glass, an old vaudeville team, had seven children: Seymour, Buddy, Boo Boo, Fanny, Zooey, and the twins Walt and Waker. Walt had been killed in an accident in Japan. Seymour committed suicide in Salinger's short story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish." From 1927 to 1943 the Glass children at various times appeared on the radio program "It's a Wise Child," a program similar to radio's real "Quiz Kids" which featured precocious children. Zooey said the parents made the kids into freaks. Zooey (Zacharay) is an actor, and Franny is a college senior.
All the arguments and endless discussions of religion are boring in a work of fiction. Zooey's long rant in the living room about Franny saying of the Jesus prayer tries the reader's patience. Zooey makes a phone call and imitates brother Buddy. She recognizes Zooey. He says she needs detachment and desirelessness. He boosts her ego by assuring her she's a good actress. Seymour had told Zooey, that even though he was on the radio, he should shine his shoes for the fat lady, an anonymous listener.
My advice is to stay with the story; you may like it or hate it, but it is what it is.
 Wonderful peice of work March 9, 2010
Courtney Taylor (PORTSMOUTH, OH, US)
I had found this book and fell in love instantly. I have always been a JD Salinger fan especially after reading "The Catcher on the rye". Salingers writing style has always been something I've admired. He gives you a healthy description of what is going on in the story. One of my favorites part of this book is a conversation where Zooey and his mother are in the bathroom and she won't leave so Zooey can finish his bath. The conversation between the two is wonderful. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read.
Salinger's great? March 3, 2010
Mr. William G. Wardino (Saint Petersburg, Florida)
I have read Catcher in the Rye many times during the course of many years. I had never read Franny and Zooey. I haven't made up my mind whether I like this book. At the moment, I fail to see the genius I saw in "Catcher."
My favorite book March 2, 2010
Emm (Pgh, PA)
This is my favorite book by Salinger. Though "Catcher" is a great book as well, "Franny and Zooey" brings out the sometimes awkward, but profound, relationship that can exist between a brother and sister. The best parts of the book are the conversations between Zooey and Mrs. Glass in the bathroom and between Franny and Zooey. Though Franny seems to be the one going through a personal journey by means of the "Jesus prayer," I find Zooey's transformation of dealing with Seymour's death and his relationship with his sister and mother to be the most profound. Zooey, I feel, is the one to really verbalize and discover the meaning of the "Jesus prayer" for himself.
 A bit of a letdown February 24, 2010
D. Nobles (Durham, NC)
When I was 18 years old I read Catcher In The Rye and was absolutely blown away. At the time it was by far the best literary work that I had ever laid my eyes on.
Fast forward 2 years later... I'm walking around a used book store and decide to see what else Mr. Salinger had to offer. The only book by Salinger in the store was Franny and Zooey. I snatched that bad boy up, paid for it, and eagerly cracked it open as soon as I got home. I read the whole Franny part straight through and was shockingly not entertained. It wasn't the worst thing I had ever read but it was certainly not in the same league of Catcher In The Rye. So I immediately continued on to the Zooey portion of the book. This is where the letdown came in. I didn't like this portion of the book at all. There was lots of talking that didn't really seem to go anywhere. I was bored out of my mind trying to finish the book.
Bottomline is that if you liked the style of Catcher and want more of the same then don't bother with this one because the two are hardly similar at all. I haven't read anything else by Salinger (I was planning to but the letdown of this book has made me quite reluctant to do so) so I can't speak for the rest of his books but I do not recommend this on at all.
Given that I read this book 2 years ago, I have told myself that I'd give it another read through to see if my opinion differs any but I haven't been able to bring myself to do it yet. Just when I get ready to do it, I remember how much I disliked it the first time.
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