The Monkey King's Used Primate Emporium and Book Reviews

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Ian Hamilton, "In Search of J. D. Salinger"

Started January 23 � Finished January 25; 218 pages. Posted 25 January 2002

I hadn�t read anything by Salinger until about three years ago. It goes with my cycle of cynicism where I figure if everybody thinks something is so great (i.e., The Catcher in the Rye), I�m going to hate it. But I finally broke down and read it for the first time � and thought it was fantastic. I quickly grabbed everything else by him, which didn�t take long, since he�s only written four things, and loved those as well.

Most people know about Salinger�s reclusiveness. If you didn�t, I have some news for you: Salinger doesn�t like publicity. Hell, I thought he had died years ago, because you didn�t hear anything about him. Hamilton knew this when he started this biography (that he was a recluse, not that I thought Salinger had died), and wasn�t planning on getting any help from him. He wrote a letter of intent to the famed author and didn�t get a response, as expected. Finally, after writing some other people named Salinger to see if there was any relation, he got a letter from J.D. himself, essentially telling Hamilton to stay the fuck out of his business, albeit much more elegantly than that.

Hamilton said "fuck you" back, albeit in a much more professional manner, and started digging, but decided to honor certain codes to not bother Salinger�s family, neighbors, or to talk about his life after 1965, the year Salinger stopped writing for publication. (Though he apparently continues to write, and has a safe full of stories. Somebody wanna help me with a little burglary caper?)

Research completed, book finished, early presses sent out to reviewers, Salinger brought out the lawyers � big ones � and successfully stopped publication of the biography. Hamilton then rewrote the book as his own biography, telling the story of how he spent his time researching the author and documenting Salinger�s life in the process. A clever move, but it strikes me as a little sleazy.

Surprisingly, Salinger�s life up until 1965 is, well, a little boring. The best part of the book comes at the end when Salinger and his lawyers get involved. But this section is too small, with too few details about the legal battle. A better book would have involved a small summary of the process, and then concentrated on the lawsuit.


Rating: Somewhere between working at a used bookstore and getting it for cheap, and flea market prices.

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