“For Esme, With Love And Squalor”

[Cyrano]

As many of you know, J.D. Salinger died today.

He didn’t write much. But, (to paraphrase a line from an old Tracy/Hepburn movie), “What he wrote was choice.”

I’ve read “Catcher in the Rye” perhaps three or four times. Hell, it helped me grow up (far later than I should have) and learn that dogma was bullshit.

I’ve also read “Franny and Zooey,” but perhaps what I enjoyed most were the tales he wrote in a book titled “Nine Short Stories.”

My favorite was named “For Esme, With Love and Squalor.”

It is as impossible to explain this story, as it is to explain a poetic masterpiece.

Basically, it’s about a little girl he met when he was a soldier in Europe during WWII. He’s in a restaurant, she comes over to his table and they have a conversation. Her name is Esme. And when she learns that he writes … well, I’ve said too much already.

Find it and read it. The reward will be worth the effort.

[ellie]

1. That's my favorite too!

I love it! It's true, it's hard to explain. I said in another thread that when I first read "For Esme," I laughed, because as a writer, there was no way in hell I would ever write that well. So I did the next best thing, I named my cat Esme.

Salinger's writing was exquisite. Just beautiful. I cried a little when I heard the news he died.

[Cyrano]

5. I understand what you're feeling. For someone who

decided to publish such a small amount, (of what he may have written and we will never know about), each and every word was what can only be described as "delicious."

[elleng]

2. Thanks for the memories, Cyrano.

I've been thinking along these lines, too.

[grifter_tm]

3. Despite being a reclusive, almost misanthropic, writer...

he will be missed considerably.

I've read all four of his books (Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey, Nine Stories and Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters). Catcher will always be one of my favorites. From the Nine Stories, my favorites were "For Esme With Love and Squalor" and "De Daumier Smith's Blue Period".

R.I.P. Jerome David Salinger

[Sal Minella]

4. I remember vividly Esme flattening her bangs down on her forehead

with the palm of her hand, sitting at the table.

An unforgettable story indeed.

And "A Fine Day For Bananafish" -- the title sticks with me, but I seem to have lost the story.

[Joe Fields]

6. Actually, he did write a lot.

According to Salinger himself, he has, or had fifteen unpublished manuscripts locked away in a safe. Why he didn't care to have them published, who knows> But he said in a rare interview that he wrote every day.

[undeterred]

7. Best. Title. Ever.

[nannah]

8. i always liked a great day for banana fish

and i always loved all his books. i did a literary interpretive program in college of "catcher in the rye".

[undeterred]

10. Seymore Glass.

Little bits of Salinger stuck in my brain.

[FirstLight]

9. It's sad news

...but at least he will be remembered as a great writer. How many contemporaries will history remember? How many wonderful writers or voices will be lost in the background noise of the internet, blogs and the like?


they don't make 'em like *that* anymore, that's for sure!

I loved this story more than most of his others that I remember, even Catcher was hard for me to feel "good" about.
...now I think I need to re-read his works from a more grownup standpoint and see what I can "get" now that I didn't "get" when I was a freshman in college :blush:

[Karmadillo]

11. What a great story. It always makes me

:cry: I hadn't reread it in years, so thank you for your post.