“Nine Stories” by J. D. Salinger – Man’s Eternal War

Most of you probably know J. D. Salinger for his famous novel that has become a mandatory reading in many schools, The Catcher in the Rye. However, most people forget that despite what they felt about that book, Salinger has written many other, different ones, and it took more than one piece of work in order to get him recognized as an internationally-celebrated author.

Without a doubt, Nine Stories is one of those works that helped him to achieve his status. As you can probably tell by the title, the book is a collection of nine different stories, only related by themes and not by plot. These include “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”, “Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut”, “Just Before the War with the Eskimos”, “The Laughing Man”, “Down at the Dinghy”, “For Esme -- With Love and Squalo”, “Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes”, “De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period”, and “Teddy”.

Many of the stories in this collection have certain surrealistic factors, perhaps more in the way in which events unfold rather than anything else. There is an ever-present sense of wonder when reading these stories, especially due to the amount of emotion and passion radiating from the characters, with children being energetic, odd, inquisitive and inventive, and with adults being forged by the circumstances they have had to go through. 

Not every character in this book was designed to be likable… as a matter of fact, I’m not sure even half of them were. However, that doesn’t meant one cannot appreciate their depth and complexity.

So what is it exactly that unites all these stories? Well, the way I see it (my mind may change after I read for a second, and perhaps even a third time), it’s the theme of war, or more precisely, all the wars that man has to fight with himself as well as those around him. Many of the character have goals that they decide to achieve at the detriment of others, not only pitting people against each other, but also having them fight against their own guilt. 

Despite the dark themes though, most of the stories still manage to be light-hearted, although I have to say there are some moments which certain readers would be keen to qualify as disturbing. I’m going to stop here as this is one of those books that should be read without any knowledge of it or expectations, and I’ll let you discover it for yourself, if of course you do like books that break the mould.

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Jerome David Salinger  (January 1, 1919 - January 27, 2010) Personal site Jerome David Salinger, better known as J. D. Salinger is a highly-praised American writer whose many works, starting from his early ones, have earned him much acclaim. His great classic The Catcher in the Rye remains one of those immortal works of literature, though he certainly had many others that put him on the pantheon of history's greatest writers, such as Nine Stories and Franny and Zooey.