Crumby Place

July 15, 1951
Aw, the World's a Crumby Place
By JAMES STERN

This girl Helga, she kills me. She reads just about everything I bring into the house, and a lot of crumby stuff besides. She's crazy about kids. I mean stories about kids.
But Hel, she says there's hardly a writer alive can write about children. Only these English guys Richard Hughes and Walter de la Mare, she says. The rest is all corny. It depresses her. That's another thing. She can sniff a corny guy or a phony book quick as a dog smells a rat. This phoniness, it gives old Hel a pain if you want to know the truth. That's why she came hollering to me one day, her hair falling over her face and all, and said I had to read some damn story in The New Yorker. Who's the author? I said. Salinger, She told me, J. D. Salinger. Who's he? I asked. How should I know, she said, just you read it.


Then Hel asked what this Holden's father was like, so I told her if she wanted to
know the truth Holden didn't want to go into all that David Copperfield-kind of
business. It bored him and anyway his "parents would have [had] about two
hemorrhages apiece if [he] told anything personal about them." You see, this Holden,
I said, he just can't find anybody decent in the lousy world and he's in some sort of crumby Californian home full of psychiatrists.

That damn near killed Hel. Psychiatrists, she howled. That's right, I said, this one
psychiatrist guy keeps asking Holden if he's going to apply himself when he goes
back to school. (He's already been kicked out of about six.) And Holden, he says
how the hell does he know. "I I am," he says, "but how do I know. I swear it's
a stupid question."

That's the way it sounds to me, Hel said, and away she went with this crazy book.
"The Catcher in the Rye." What did I tell ya, she said next day. This Salinger, he's a
short story guy. And he knows how to write about kids. This book though, it's too
long. Gets kind of monotonous. And he should've cut out a lot about these jerks and
all at that crumby school. They depress me. They really do. Salinger, he's best with
real children. I mean young ones like old Phoebe, his kid sister. She's a personality.
Holden and little old Phoeb, Hel said, they kill me. This last part about her and
Holden and this Mr. Antolini, the only guy Holden ever thought he could trust, who
ever took any interest in him, and who turned out queer--that's terrific. I swear it is.

You needn't swear, Hel, I said. Know what? This Holden, he's just like you. He finds
the whole world's full of people say one thing and mean another and he doesn't like
it; and he hates movies and phony slobs and snobs and crumby books and war. Boy,
how he hates war. Just like you, Hel, I said. But old Hel, she was already reading
this crazy "Catcher" book all over again. That's always a good sign with Hel.

Mr. Stern is the author of "The Man Who Was Loved," a recent collection of short
stories.

Catcher in the Rye

Read to Chapter 14 over the break

The Catcher in the Rye | Introduction



Although The Catcher in the Rye caused considerable controversy when it was first published in 1951, the book—the account of three disoriented days in the life of a troubled sixteen-year-old boy—was an instant hit. Within two weeks after its release, it was listed number one on The New York Times best-seller list, and it stayed there for thirty weeks. It remained immensely popular for many years, especially among teenagers and young adults, largely because of its fresh, brash style and anti-establishment attitudes—typical attributes of many people emerging from the physical and psychological turmoil of adolescence.

It also was the bane of many parents, who objected to the main character's obscene language, erratic behavior, and antisocial attitudes. Responding to the irate protests, numerous school and public libraries and bookstores removed the book from their shelves. Holden simply was not a good role model for the youth of the 1950s, in the view of many conservative adults. Said J.D. Salinger himself, in a rare published comment, "I'm aware that many of my friends will be saddened and shocked, or shock-saddened, over some of the chapters in The Catcher in the Rye. Some of my best friends are children. In fact, all my best friends are children. It's almost unbearable for me to realize that my book will be kept on a shelf out of their reach." The clamor over the book undoubtedly contributed to its popularity among the young: It became the forbidden fruit in the garden of literature. For some reason—perhaps because of the swirling controversies over his written works—Salinger retreated from the New York literary scene in the 1960s to a bucolic New Hampshire community called Cornish, where he has lived a very private life and avidly avoided the press. Despite the fact that he has granted few interviews, there is a substantial body of critical and biographical works about Salinger and his all-too-brief list of literary creations.

2/10 Write, write, write

Get Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger


Work on Book report!!!!

Read

Writing Projects for Shadow Baby 2/6

The Book Report

1. You will be writing a book report about your book, but first you must create the book you will be writing about.

Step 1: Create a pseudonym for yourself. You are the author of the book.

Step 2: Write a brief plot summary describing the characters, setting and plot of your imagined book. You can fill in more details as you go, but think about an imaginary novel you would like to write (if you could).

Step 3: Write a book report about the book--essentially use your plot summary, descriptions of the characters and themes, a bit of background about the author, the genre the book belongs in (if appropriate) and whether or not you would recommend the book to others.

BE IMAGINATIVE AND CREATIVE!

Feb. 2 Test Review and Shadow Baby

1. Review grammar and style test

2. Shadow Baby: Discussion questions (See previous posting): In groups discuss and report back to class