Franny and Zooey
‘Everything everybody does is so—I don’t know—notwrong, or even mean, or even stupid necessarily. But just so tiny and meaningless and—sad-making. And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you’re conforming just as much only in a different way.’First published inThe New Yorkeras two sequential stories, ‘Franny’ and ‘Zooey’ offer a dual portrait of the two youngest members of J. D. Salinger’s fictional Glass family.Franny Glass is a pretty, effervescent college student on a date with her intellectually confident boyfriend, Lane. They appear to be the perfect couple, but as they struggle to communicate with each other about the things they really care about, slowly their true feelings come to the surface. The second story in this book, ‘Zooey’, plunges us into the world of her ethereal, sophisticated family. When Franny’s emotional and spiritual doubts reach new heights, her older brother Zooey, a misanthropic former child genius, offers her consolation and brotherly advice.Written in Salinger’s typically irreverent style, these two stories offer a touching snapshot of the distraught mindset of early adulthood and are full of the insightful emotional observations and witty turns of phrase that have helped make Salinger’s reputation what it is today.
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What Hacker News says
- This is a spiritual idea. Encouraged in many traditions all over the world. I saw Zhuangzi mentioned, and also saw people mention the "Perfect Days" movie.
I have delved deep in this matter, and read and plan to read multiple books in this theme:
1. Be As You Are: The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi - David Godman
2. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig
3. Franny and Zooey - JD Salinger
These come from top of my mind.
If you have the acumen, go read Bhagavad Gita, Gospel of Ramakrishna, Tao Te Ching, etc.
Many people mistake what is conveyed as "NPC" here as being quitters and losers, but it is about owning consequences like no other way.
- Franny and Zooey by Salinger. I love the conversations and the attitude of the characters. There is not much in the way of plot or story, but reading this book makes me feel like I'm participating in their conversations... the whole overly-educated and apologetic about it Glass family.
- The following have all had a significant effect on my worldview. You can find more information at [1].
- The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
- Thinking, Fast and Slow
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
- Crime and Punishment
- The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
- Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
- The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity
- Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
- Franny and Zooey
- Master of the Senate
- Atlas Shrugged
- Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
- Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
- The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't
- Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans
- Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
- Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
- Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
- Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow
- Ethics in the Real World: 86 Brief Essays on Things that Matter
- A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life
- Humankind: A Hopeful History
- The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think
- Anything from Salinger. Go beyond Catcher in the Rye. Nine Stories; Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters; Franny and Zooey.
Hemingway's short fiction really kicked off a lot of reading for me. Men Without Women is a nice little collection.
A couple others to go deeper on ... Stephen Kind and Roald Dahl. King has many incredible novelas: The Body (Stand By Me); Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (Shawshank Redemption); Hearts in Atlantis. Likewise, Dahl, known more for his children's books wrote some adult fiction, short stories.
I think it is less about the book and more about when in your life you pick it up.
- For me, The Catcher in the Rye was what led me to his other books. Franny and Zooey was my favorite book for a long time (although it's been nearly a decade since I read it) and I think The Catcher in the Rye is probably the weakest of his four books in my opinion (and very likely the most polarizing).
- He's really only got three other books, and only one of them's a novel, the others being a short story collection and a pair of novellas/novellettes.
I read Catcher first and found it just OK. Franny and Zooey was my gateway deeper into Salinger (and Stoicism) back in high school. Liked Nine stories quite a bit on my first visit, but didn't care for Raise High & Seymour at all until a re-read over a decade later, and now that might be my favorite of his books.
