Franny and Zooey & The French Lieutenant's Woman

 I do not consider myself a J.D. Salinger acolyte. When I was a teen, he loomed over us who read as the great-writer-as-hermit. I read his short stories first, my introduction to The New Yorker genre of fiction. They seemed a bit airy-fairy compared to life in Anderson, Indiana. (I do not think I got around to Catcher in the Rye until college, and it remains a novel that does not convince me it deserves the legendary status it had. Has? I think my generation had a very good idea of who were the fakes.)

There is no doubt that Salinger was a great writer, whether he remains in style is beyond me. I think this Yale lecture makes a good argument for reading Franny and Zooey:

I suspect John Fowles is little read today. Even knowing his name may show how far I am from the mainstream; that I am antiquated, if not actually stuck in time. I had one of his novels and never read it. What I knew was he wrote The French Lieutenant's Woman. There was a movie that I never saw. More importantly, the Ball State theater program put on a dramatic reading of the novel - I do not think it was an actual play, but my memory is unhelpful - that I saw with TJ. I did take the opportunity to read the novel when I was in prison. Well, worth the time. Fowles should not be forgotten. I think the following paragraph supports my opinion in a far more article manner than I am presenting here:

sch 11/27