“The most perfectly balanced collection of stories I know…Nine Stories is a book I’ve gone back to at different moments in my life, and I always find something new. I’ve passionately loved different stories at different times, first ‘Teddy,’ later ‘For Esmé–with Love and Squalor.’ I could list all of them.”
NO MAJOR SPOILERS
These nine stories appear to be written during the 40’s and 50’s and it seems Salinger spent some time studying people, how they thought and what they did. All the stories are different and a couple of them I thought would make excellent script for The Twilight Zone.
The only common thing I noticed was in each story it appears that smoking was the fashion as at least one character lit up, that’s something to be remembered when the modern day authors write stories reflecting this era…remember at least one character needs to smoke.
I think this work would fit quite well with my recent Great Courses: The Dark Side of Human Nature so if you per chance have read that book first these stories would really fall under examples of Human Nature because that’s for the most part exactly what they are.
The soldier before and after the war, some developed what was termed “shell shock”, now it’s labeled PTSD but how could every soldier who lived through the horror of war process their experiences the same way. I do recommend this work by Salinger especially if you were able to appreciate The Catcher in the Rye.
Reviewed by:
Diana Long
Added 28th March 2020
