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Nine Stories by: J. D. Salinger

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Rating: - Good book, too depressing for me

I completely agree with the reader who wrote his review on May 1. But I can't stand melancholy for very long. I enjoy reading for having fun, use my imagination, not for being hurted. I try to avoid depressive stories, songs, whatever.

Rating: - Careful!

Watch out! Some of the customers who wrote reviews of this great, intense, disturbing (in the best possible way) book said how some of the stories end. Don't let them spoil it for you!

Rating: - Very oddly written, but very deep.

The book "Nine Stores" by J. D. Salinger was one of the oddest and deepest books I have ever read. As a whole, it was very interesting. In the story "A Perfect Day for a Banana Fish," a girl named Sibil went on vacation with a friend/releative or boyfriend that has just gotten back from war. Sibil's mother is worried that Seymore may have a breakdown. While Sibil is on the phone with her mother, Seymore is on the beach playing with a little girl that he met. They go looking for banana fish (fish that go into a hole and eat too many bananas, get fat and can't get out of the hole). After Seymore is done swimming, he goes back into his hotel room and shoots himself in the head. This is very disturbing. One second he is with a little innocent girl playing on the beach, the next second he is dead in his hotel. I think this story symbolizes innocence lost. In another story, "The Laughing Man," there is someone everyone calls "Chief" that always takes a group of kids out to go do something every day. They go play baseball, go to the museum, and other things. Every time they get together, "Chief" tells them part of the story of "The Laughing Man," which has a very bloody and gruesome ending. It seemed the more into the story the "Chief" got, the creepier he began to act. This story, just like a lot of the other stories, just didn't make much sense. The story "Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes," was definitely hard to grasp. It was about a guy that is worried about his wife cheating on him. He calls on one of his friends for some support. It is kind of amusing the way he is so stressed out. It really gets his friend annoyed, although he does his best to help out. His advice to Arthur is to calm down and go to bed, she is just out with her friends. He eventually calms down, and Arthur's wife comes home. It turns out that she was just out with her friends. I don't think this story had much of a point. The only thing I can get from this is that Salinger is trying to describe how much we, as people, worry over nothing! This book, by Salinger, seems to be an okay book, if you can manage to grasp the entire concept. You have to really read it carefully to get the underlining effect. The book is very descriptive. Not as far as objects are concerned, but to understand the characters' emotions, and actions I had to actually read the book twice to grasp what Salinger was trying to do. Salinger was very clever. He was making up stories, and inserting ideas that we actually think about or act like. The book, in a way, is like a mirror. It showed you what you look like while in other people's shoes. Very well written!

Rating: - Very disappointing and disturbing!

For an english project, I was supposed to read a book outside of class and review it. I picked "Nine Stories," by Salinger. I think this book is one of the most oddly written books I have ever read. After reading, "The Catcher in the Rye," Salinger really let me down. These stories didn't seem to have any real point to them. For example, in the story "Banana Fish," the story seemed to be going along pretty well until it got to the end. One second Seymore was having a wonderful time at the beach with a little girl, and the next second he was dead after shooting himself in the head! I felt like I must have missed something, like a few pages were missing before the conclusion. The rest of the stories seemed to be that way also (a pretty decent story, with an ending that seemed to fall off of a cliff). In the story "Green Eyes," a man seemed to be feeling uneasy about his wife cheating on him. It was sort of amusing listening to the paranoid way he acted, although the end was pretty boring. All of the stories seemed to give you a feeling of uneasiness and depression, as to see the way Salinger portrays the life of the average human being.

Rating: - A great collection of feelings

I can see the problem with most of the people that didn't like this book. They expected stories... but this book's main course aren't stories, but feelings. Salinger used stories, places, characters and situations to paint feelings, the way a painter would use oil and canvas to paint a picture. So at the end of the story you don't have to see if you liked the story... what you got to do is look at how do you feel after you've read it. What Salinger tried to make you feel is mostly feelings like melancholy, and he succeeds at that, and thats what makes it a great book...

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