Heard on the radio yesterday that J D Salinger has died, aged 91. I've read two of his books, the novel and "Franny & Zooey" and neither of them for the best part of 20 years, but the man had a big impact on me.
I first read "The Catcher In The Rye" when I was 17 - Ian Murie, who I sat next to at my first job, suggested I should give it a go and it was a major revelation for me. I loved it and was disturbed by it and wanted to be able to write like it - it changed the way I looked at 'literary' fiction and that shift has stayed with me.
Salinger didn't allow anything else to be published, but apparently has a big backlog of material, which will now more than likely see the light of day. I'll be interested to see what comes out.
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And following on from my post about Robert B Parker, I read "The Judas Goat" last week and loved it and this week I'm reading "The Godwulf Manuscript", which is brilliantly hardboiled. Superb stuff. Next up for me is an unpublished manuscript, which I'm critiquing for my chum Gary McMahon.
I first read "The Catcher In The Rye" when I was 17 - Ian Murie, who I sat next to at my first job, suggested I should give it a go and it was a major revelation for me. I loved it and was disturbed by it and wanted to be able to write like it - it changed the way I looked at 'literary' fiction and that shift has stayed with me.
Salinger didn't allow anything else to be published, but apparently has a big backlog of material, which will now more than likely see the light of day. I'll be interested to see what comes out.
- - -
And following on from my post about Robert B Parker, I read "The Judas Goat" last week and loved it and this week I'm reading "The Godwulf Manuscript", which is brilliantly hardboiled. Superb stuff. Next up for me is an unpublished manuscript, which I'm critiquing for my chum Gary McMahon.
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