Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger

I suppose I shouldn't really have expected the stories of Nine Stories to be bright and upbeat, but they weren't what anyone would call even mildly happy reading. The stories were uniformly depressing--and excellent. The beginning tale, "A Perfect Day For Bananafish", is one of Salinger's most famous. The story is simultaneously horrifying and profound, shocking and sublime. It is so short that to go into detail would be to ruin the whole experience, but the simple premise of the plot is laden with description. The next two stories, "Uncle Wiggily In Connecticut" and "Just Before The War With The Eskimos", are tales of middle and upper-middle class abandon. While not as powerful as "Bananafish", they advance a sense of gloom and despair. "The Laughing Man" is the next story, and it is quite possibly my favorite story from the collection. Told by an older narrator who is recalling a childhood experience, it contrasts the pure power of storytelling with the grounding reality of life. That story and the next, "Down At The Dinghy", provide a sense of childlike illusion, emphasis on the illusion. "For Esme -- With Love and Squalor", is appropriately set in squalid WWII Europe. Fans of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events will recognize the title--one of the characters is named Esme Squalor. The story follows an American GI and the precocious French girl he meets. Unlike the other stories, though, it is not so much about the plot, but rather in how Salinger crafts a repellently vivid setting for his characters. "Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes" fits in with "Uncle Wiggily" and "Just Before" in terms of being a solid story of decadent American life, but it 's nothing spectacular. "De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period" follows with a protagonist completely unlike any other in the collection. The tale follows a French artist in America, trying to con his way to success; only, in the spirit of the book, it's so much more complicated than that. The final story, "Teddy", is a story that can oly be described and experienced personally. Read it to find out.