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J.D. Salinger: The Escape Artist
A spirited, deeply personal inquiry into the near-mythic life and canonical work of J. D. Salinger by a writer known for his sensitivity to the Manhattan culture that was Salinger's great theme.
Three years after his death at ninety-one, J.D. Salinger remains our most mythic writer. The Catcher in the Rye (1951) became an American classic, and he was for a long time the writer for The New Yorker. Franny and Zooey and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters introduced, by way of the Glass family, a new type in contemporary literature: the introspective, voluble cast of characters whose stage is the Upper East Side of New York. But fame proved a burden, and in 1953 Salinger fled to New Hampshire, spending the next half century in isolation.
Beller has followed his subject’s trail, from his Park Avenue childhood to his final refuge, barnstorming across New England to visit various Salinger shrines, interviewing just about everyone alive who ever knew Salinger. The result is a quest biography in the tradition of Geoff Dyer’s Out of Sheer Rage, a book as much about the biographer as about the subject—two vivid, entertaining stories in one.
Three years after his death at ninety-one, J.D. Salinger remains our most mythic writer. The Catcher in the Rye (1951) became an American classic, and he was for a long time the writer for The New Yorker. Franny and Zooey and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters introduced, by way of the Glass family, a new type in contemporary literature: the introspective, voluble cast of characters whose stage is the Upper East Side of New York. But fame proved a burden, and in 1953 Salinger fled to New Hampshire, spending the next half century in isolation.
Beller has followed his subject’s trail, from his Park Avenue childhood to his final refuge, barnstorming across New England to visit various Salinger shrines, interviewing just about everyone alive who ever knew Salinger. The result is a quest biography in the tradition of Geoff Dyer’s Out of Sheer Rage, a book as much about the biographer as about the subject—two vivid, entertaining stories in one.
192 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 3, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
December 21, 2017
If I weren't reading this book on Kindle, I would have thrown it across the room. This is clearly the worst book I have read in the short Icons series of short biographies. It appears that an occupational hazard of writing about Salinger is that the biographer, not the subject, takes over the story. Beller suffers from this to an annoying degree.
Beller has created a botch of a book where his not-so interesting life intrudes on the Salinger story. Examples: I had to read all about how Beller forgot his galoshes when visiting Salinger's summer camp in Maine; a long discussion of how he obtained galleys of the suppressed Hamilton biography but lost them at his mother's apartment; one whole chapter (!) of his discussion with his high school English teacher about Salinger's works; another long section (which I skipped) involving discussions with Beller's relatives. This passes for research: "Whether the Salingers subscribed to The New Yorker before of after they moved across town in 1932 I do not know, but I feel confident they did."
Beller also suffers from an amazing lack of self-awareness. He has the gall to criticize prior biographers/memoirists Ian Hamilton, Joyce Maynard, and Margaret Salinger (JD's daughter) for lacking self awareness. Hello, look in the mirror!
I could go on and on. Large gaps are present in his presentation of JD Salinger's life. One particular howler toward the end is that he seems to think that Salinger was a follower of Zen Buddhism, while in the same sentence he discusses Salinger's long-standing donations to "Vedanta Buddhism." Vedanta isn't Buddhist; it is a school of Hinduism (with universalist elements). What a mess.
Avoid at all costs.
Beller has created a botch of a book where his not-so interesting life intrudes on the Salinger story. Examples: I had to read all about how Beller forgot his galoshes when visiting Salinger's summer camp in Maine; a long discussion of how he obtained galleys of the suppressed Hamilton biography but lost them at his mother's apartment; one whole chapter (!) of his discussion with his high school English teacher about Salinger's works; another long section (which I skipped) involving discussions with Beller's relatives. This passes for research: "Whether the Salingers subscribed to The New Yorker before of after they moved across town in 1932 I do not know, but I feel confident they did."
Beller also suffers from an amazing lack of self-awareness. He has the gall to criticize prior biographers/memoirists Ian Hamilton, Joyce Maynard, and Margaret Salinger (JD's daughter) for lacking self awareness. Hello, look in the mirror!
I could go on and on. Large gaps are present in his presentation of JD Salinger's life. One particular howler toward the end is that he seems to think that Salinger was a follower of Zen Buddhism, while in the same sentence he discusses Salinger's long-standing donations to "Vedanta Buddhism." Vedanta isn't Buddhist; it is a school of Hinduism (with universalist elements). What a mess.
Avoid at all costs.
April 3, 2015
I really don’t see where Beller gets off criticizing Margaret Salinger’s unauthorized biography of her father. I venture to guess that she knew him better than Beller did. Oh, wait, did Beller even meet him or did he just travel around to Salinger’s old haunts, hoping to get a glimpse of the J.D. Salinger that once was . . .? Or did Beller merely look through some old manuscripts of a biography that was never published? Regardless, this book didn’t really offer anything beyond what was already covered in the Salinger documentary or the Shields biography. The book has a nice cover though, if only we could judge it by that . . .
February 26, 2022
This is a short book that was published and also apparently recorded in 2014. JD Salinger died in 2010. This is a short book slightly more than five hours in the audible version and part of what makes it interesting it is almost as much about the author of the book as it is about JD Salinger. It contains a good deal about how the author relates to this famous person in some ways in which their lives overlapped although they never knew each other. This is another book about JD Salinger where the author never had a word with Mr. Salinger. It is about talking with people and reading well protected letters that if Mr. Salinger had anything to say about it would not exist. For Mr. Sallenger was a writer and he know the power in danger of the written word and he felt that he owned what he had written and it was up to nobody else to access it without his permission. The writer of this book is a pretty good writer any scrapes up information that others have scraped up before him and he thinks out loud about what it all might mean. And he creates a small book that is pretty interesting to listen to.
December 26, 2022
This - from the #IconSeries of brief biographies - was an intriguing look at one my favorite authors. Beller is a bit self aggrandizing, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment. I liked hearing about his research process. This was my second Salinger biography; I’ll soon get to my third. When you love someone’s work so purely, there’s an unequivocal urge to dive deep.
November 2, 2023
This review will also mention Shirley Hazzard's Greene on Capri [which I gave a 3* review and read about a month ago]. The Escape Artist and Greene on Capri are both short portraits/biographies of fiction authors, by literary authors. I am a big fan of Greene and have read at least 5 of his novels. J.D. Salinger I have only read Catcher in the Rye and am not particularly interested in. I have previously read one of Hazzard's nonfiction works on the UN, but none of her fiction. I have not read anything else by Beller. Both books include a fair amount about the authors [Hazzard and Beller] along with material on their subjects. Greene and Hazzard were friends, Salinger and Beller never met, but there are interesting parallels in their pasts.
So, with this background, surprisingly, I liked this much better. Both Greene and Salinger are cranky personalities, but Greene was not a recluse. From this book about Salinger, I learned a lot about him and his history. I learned some "gossip" and more traditional biographical information. Fascinating information on the biography by Ian Hamilton which Salinger successfully repressed, the affair with Joyce Maynard, vignettes of many of the editors at The New Yorker, and more. Very interesting, and highly recommended. It is part of the Icons series. I'm curious to also check out Beller's collections of short stories.
So, with this background, surprisingly, I liked this much better. Both Greene and Salinger are cranky personalities, but Greene was not a recluse. From this book about Salinger, I learned a lot about him and his history. I learned some "gossip" and more traditional biographical information. Fascinating information on the biography by Ian Hamilton which Salinger successfully repressed, the affair with Joyce Maynard, vignettes of many of the editors at The New Yorker, and more. Very interesting, and highly recommended. It is part of the Icons series. I'm curious to also check out Beller's collections of short stories.
July 3, 2014
Confused writer
I enjoyed the insights about J.D. Salinger. At times, the author focuses on his own life and other areas of non-interest. The book also jumps around in time without a purpose. It could have been so much better if examples of Salinger's words were used to illustrate his points.
I enjoyed the insights about J.D. Salinger. At times, the author focuses on his own life and other areas of non-interest. The book also jumps around in time without a purpose. It could have been so much better if examples of Salinger's words were used to illustrate his points.
June 18, 2014
I can understand New Horizons (Icons) assigning or contracting this author to produce this book. Thomas Beller not an unknown and, like Salinger, he hails from NYC. But why didn't New Horizons have a "reject" clause and refuse this mess? Perhaps because a certain number of sales were guaranteed? They knew they could dump at least one copy in every library collection in the country because libraries now let Ingram and other contract jobbers do the bulk of choosing the books they buy.
Umpteen times I wanted to hurl this book across the room, watch it smash against the wall and slide in a bloody mess to the floor. But since it was a library book I didn't. Instead, I stuck it out to the end (grateful to find a few little insights about his editors and some details of his earliest stories). Mostly what spurred me forward was knowing I really should read the whole thing to earn the privilege of awarding it only two little bitty stars.
To begin with, the title is incorrect. It ought to have been called Me & J.D. since the author pretty much gives himself equal coverage. Did this book have no editor? Is the author proud of a product that reads as though it's a collection of blog entries? Is he proud of a product that's full of repetitions, paragraphs where sentences don't relate to the sentence before or the sentence after, and absolutely baseless conclusions?
Normally, I enjoy these little under-200-word bios and love to recommend them (as a library clerk asked for advice) to high school and junior college students who are assigned a bio, any bio, often from a certain time period. My favorites are Larry McMurtry's Crazy Horse and Bobbie Ann Mason's Elvis Presley (Penguin Lives series).
Umpteen times I wanted to hurl this book across the room, watch it smash against the wall and slide in a bloody mess to the floor. But since it was a library book I didn't. Instead, I stuck it out to the end (grateful to find a few little insights about his editors and some details of his earliest stories). Mostly what spurred me forward was knowing I really should read the whole thing to earn the privilege of awarding it only two little bitty stars.
To begin with, the title is incorrect. It ought to have been called Me & J.D. since the author pretty much gives himself equal coverage. Did this book have no editor? Is the author proud of a product that reads as though it's a collection of blog entries? Is he proud of a product that's full of repetitions, paragraphs where sentences don't relate to the sentence before or the sentence after, and absolutely baseless conclusions?
Normally, I enjoy these little under-200-word bios and love to recommend them (as a library clerk asked for advice) to high school and junior college students who are assigned a bio, any bio, often from a certain time period. My favorites are Larry McMurtry's Crazy Horse and Bobbie Ann Mason's Elvis Presley (Penguin Lives series).
February 16, 2015
This is an odd book. It's not so much a biography of J.D. Salinger as much as it is a series of short personal essays inspired by him as well as the author's research into his work and history.
Thomas Beller delves into Salinger's life and his relationships with family, friends and colleagues through an intensely personal lens. It's less about Salinger than about Beller himself, who is an elegant writer in his own right, though not the same kind of legend, of course. Who is?
Salinger became nearly as famous for his reclusiveness in the last almost 60 years of his life as for the writing itself. And, Beller, rightly, laments this.
He writes, in one of a dozens of insightful footnotes:
"The whole 'what is he doing up there?' mystery has been a distraction from the much more interesting mysteries surrounding Salinger and his work. What does his writing provoke in us? How does it achieve this effect, and why?"
Because it is Salinger's writing that is so beautiful. It's certainly not the man himself, who had bizarre relationships with teenagers decades younger than himself and who wrote one of his editors, who was dying of cancer, that his cancer would be healed if he just got more Zen.
Paradoxically, though, it almost seems to be Salinger's desire to hide from the world that created a world so hungry for him that it sought out any little crumbs it could find -- and those crumbs often don't paint the nicest picture.
Thomas Beller delves into Salinger's life and his relationships with family, friends and colleagues through an intensely personal lens. It's less about Salinger than about Beller himself, who is an elegant writer in his own right, though not the same kind of legend, of course. Who is?
Salinger became nearly as famous for his reclusiveness in the last almost 60 years of his life as for the writing itself. And, Beller, rightly, laments this.
He writes, in one of a dozens of insightful footnotes:
"The whole 'what is he doing up there?' mystery has been a distraction from the much more interesting mysteries surrounding Salinger and his work. What does his writing provoke in us? How does it achieve this effect, and why?"
Because it is Salinger's writing that is so beautiful. It's certainly not the man himself, who had bizarre relationships with teenagers decades younger than himself and who wrote one of his editors, who was dying of cancer, that his cancer would be healed if he just got more Zen.
Paradoxically, though, it almost seems to be Salinger's desire to hide from the world that created a world so hungry for him that it sought out any little crumbs it could find -- and those crumbs often don't paint the nicest picture.
August 27, 2014
I found this to be a strange biography and while I liked it very much, I am having a hard time with the words to describe it. There has been a lot of Salinger news in the years since his death as the existence of his further works has come to light. This book is about Salinger but is also about the author and his voyage to understand Salinger’s life. The book is under 200 pages so it is definitely not the most comprehensive biography written but it does provide a broad overview of Salinger’s work and his secretive life. In some ways it included an assortment of random information and I felt there were a lot of digressions but overall it was entertaining and I would recommend it to fans of Salinger’s work. I received this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
February 14, 2015
I loved the cover, size, and style of this very small book. I remain very confused about The Catcher in the Rye and when I saw this at the library, given his credentials, I thought this a perfect follow up read. Just enough information about Salinger without overtaxing my brain. Certainly he was an enigma but maybe as much for the absence as for the presence of it all. I remain unsure what to think but very much enjoyed this small book for very many reasons.
August 23, 2015
A Triptych Down Memory Lame
...I don't have an actual review to share, I just thought that would be a super clever title for a negative review of this haughty-ass book. And yes, the title contains italics--due mostly to the off chance that Thomas Beller might read it and become annoyed.
...I don't have an actual review to share, I just thought that would be a super clever title for a negative review of this haughty-ass book. And yes, the title contains italics--due mostly to the off chance that Thomas Beller might read it and become annoyed.
September 10, 2014
Really wish Beller delved into Salinger's relationship with the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of NY (instead of saying he hates that one of his favorite authors strode down the perhaps shakey path of religion/mysticism...ugh)...would have been REAL helpful :/
August 6, 2016
Thank you, Nancy, for your generosity. You are one of the many amazingly cool people on Good Reads that make me keep participating here in spite of myself.
October 18, 2017
The meandering, dry and self reflective style of the biographer takes what should be gripping material and turns it into a slab of bore.
December 30, 2022
I don’t think anyone could call this anything like a biography one thinks of, as in did you see the new bio of Updike or Roth or even Hemingway. This is a slighter, smaller effort. This is not to say it does not have value, it does, but if anything it seems to be an abridgement and perhaps annotation of points raised in a previous full length effort. Ian Hamilton released a much reduced biography after Salinger went to court to limit what he could use from letters already gleaned.
Beller, while being sympathetic to Salinger’s desire for privacy then comes into a copy of Hamilton’s bio in the first effort, a gallery of the first, pre-lawsuit, edition. He uses this quite frequently here in his own effort.
We have small chapters that seem to focus on one of his published stories or another. We are given views of his relationships inside the offices of The New Yorker.
Salinger’s relationship with his Father was near to non existent, one sees echoes of that in Holden Caulfield, especially in his troubles at private school, but also throughout his “ Glass “ stories.
Few would know Salinger was part of the DDay Landing and The Battle of the Bulge. He saw the camps, as a secular Jew but still a Jew, in some cases as one of the first Americans in contact with survivors.
With Salinger much comes back to sex, that hinted in his stories but also his own proclivities. As a counterintelligence officer in Germany directly after World War Two he interrogated Germans. One of those he questioned was an attractive young woman who, after clearing, he developed a relationship with, married and brought home to his parents apartment. Salinger, a Park Avenue Jew marries a woman, at least thought potentially to have Nazi involvement. An ophthalmologist with a thesis on the use of heroin, as Beller says the mind reals with possible implications of all this. No matter what happened in Europe after a month in the states Salinger sent her home claiming on the divorce application she had misled him. He, who had investigated her and many other Germans, had been misled. It’s all very mysterious.
And while there are multiple young women the chronically older Jerry Salinger is to have romanced the scandal, the real scandal, starts with Joyce Maynard. An 18 year old Yale freshman writes a cover article for New York Magazine. Amidst the piles of correspondence she received is a letter from a famous author in his early fifties, already established as a hermit in rural New Hampshire. Maynard cannot be held responsible here, Salingers actions are shocking. Rock stars of the era dated underage groupies, times “ were “ different and I don’t believe in holding people in the past completely responsible for living up to the changing mores of the six decades hence. That said, Salinger was not a drug addled twenty something rock star finding a groupie outside his tour bus. This is a concerted, seemingly premeditated effort via mail to seduce a girl young enough to be a granddaughter. It tends to boggle the mind.
A scene mentioned is from Maynard describing dancing with Salinger to a 1940’s music piece called “ Begin the Beguine”. Likely a song he danced to with Oona or a host of other young women more than thirty years earlier. Like many men who fall for a much younger woman it is almost never about the woman but what he, the man, is trying to recapture, relive, reexperience.
As an aside, however one can think of Oona O’Neil the young debutante he himself dated as a young man who a couple years later became the fourth wife of Charlie Chaplin who, himself, was more than thirty years older. Different times, but Salingers efforts feel particularly icky, perhaps especially when one considers him two months later giving her a small amount of money and a bus ticket home
For all this Beller still finds sympathy for the way Salinger was harassed by the media once he retreated from public view. A special look at a Time Magazine cover article and the methods used is scrutinized
A final point made by Bellor is that by going silent and also insisting that all in his circle do the same he became a larger target. A bigger white whale. It also meant, and I think this a great point, that whoever does tell the tale ( and he had to know someone would) they would be on the outside. No loyalty would exist to Salinger once they agreed to speak for the punishment for going do was well established.
An interesting book that, if anything, whets the appetite for further reading
Beller, while being sympathetic to Salinger’s desire for privacy then comes into a copy of Hamilton’s bio in the first effort, a gallery of the first, pre-lawsuit, edition. He uses this quite frequently here in his own effort.
We have small chapters that seem to focus on one of his published stories or another. We are given views of his relationships inside the offices of The New Yorker.
Salinger’s relationship with his Father was near to non existent, one sees echoes of that in Holden Caulfield, especially in his troubles at private school, but also throughout his “ Glass “ stories.
Few would know Salinger was part of the DDay Landing and The Battle of the Bulge. He saw the camps, as a secular Jew but still a Jew, in some cases as one of the first Americans in contact with survivors.
With Salinger much comes back to sex, that hinted in his stories but also his own proclivities. As a counterintelligence officer in Germany directly after World War Two he interrogated Germans. One of those he questioned was an attractive young woman who, after clearing, he developed a relationship with, married and brought home to his parents apartment. Salinger, a Park Avenue Jew marries a woman, at least thought potentially to have Nazi involvement. An ophthalmologist with a thesis on the use of heroin, as Beller says the mind reals with possible implications of all this. No matter what happened in Europe after a month in the states Salinger sent her home claiming on the divorce application she had misled him. He, who had investigated her and many other Germans, had been misled. It’s all very mysterious.
And while there are multiple young women the chronically older Jerry Salinger is to have romanced the scandal, the real scandal, starts with Joyce Maynard. An 18 year old Yale freshman writes a cover article for New York Magazine. Amidst the piles of correspondence she received is a letter from a famous author in his early fifties, already established as a hermit in rural New Hampshire. Maynard cannot be held responsible here, Salingers actions are shocking. Rock stars of the era dated underage groupies, times “ were “ different and I don’t believe in holding people in the past completely responsible for living up to the changing mores of the six decades hence. That said, Salinger was not a drug addled twenty something rock star finding a groupie outside his tour bus. This is a concerted, seemingly premeditated effort via mail to seduce a girl young enough to be a granddaughter. It tends to boggle the mind.
A scene mentioned is from Maynard describing dancing with Salinger to a 1940’s music piece called “ Begin the Beguine”. Likely a song he danced to with Oona or a host of other young women more than thirty years earlier. Like many men who fall for a much younger woman it is almost never about the woman but what he, the man, is trying to recapture, relive, reexperience.
As an aside, however one can think of Oona O’Neil the young debutante he himself dated as a young man who a couple years later became the fourth wife of Charlie Chaplin who, himself, was more than thirty years older. Different times, but Salingers efforts feel particularly icky, perhaps especially when one considers him two months later giving her a small amount of money and a bus ticket home
For all this Beller still finds sympathy for the way Salinger was harassed by the media once he retreated from public view. A special look at a Time Magazine cover article and the methods used is scrutinized
A final point made by Bellor is that by going silent and also insisting that all in his circle do the same he became a larger target. A bigger white whale. It also meant, and I think this a great point, that whoever does tell the tale ( and he had to know someone would) they would be on the outside. No loyalty would exist to Salinger once they agreed to speak for the punishment for going do was well established.
An interesting book that, if anything, whets the appetite for further reading
Read
February 25, 2022Another sad example of reading reviews of a memoir (This kind of seems it, a memoir of Thomas Beller supplemented with a silly little Salinger search) before I'm done with it, thus exposing the author as annoying and stupid. So I don't feel like reading it anymore- I'd best be reading a biography of Salinger that is- a biography of Salinger.
Also who the fuck gets access to not one but two supa-secret-Salinger power documents and doesn't do ANYTHING with them? Loose the secret biography and literally just not read the secret stories? What a cringe kid
Also who the fuck gets access to not one but two supa-secret-Salinger power documents and doesn't do ANYTHING with them? Loose the secret biography and literally just not read the secret stories? What a cringe kid
February 1, 2020
If I wanted to read the biography of Thomas Beller I would have purchased that. I don’t. And I didn’t. I wanted to read more about one of my favorite authors. However, the personal anecdotes and the commentary from Beller ruined any potential this biography had. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone with a pulse.
July 10, 2025
3.5, Sometimes the book felt more like a collection of fun facts and anecdotes about the author's life, which although they were interesting, were not the reason I picked up the book. The order of the sections seemed a bit disjointed as they jumped back and forth between the decades of Salinger's life. It wasn't a total waste though because I learned some new things and it was a quick read
January 8, 2019
Although there was a lot of speculation, I still enjoyed the book. It was interesting to hear what someone else thought might/might not have happened. I loved hearing about Beller’s experiences in the archives.
July 8, 2019
This book didn't hold my interest, but I blame my fickle, modern mind. There's a lot of good stuff in here, I especially like when the author finally gains access to the apartment in New York's UES, where Salinger lived for many years.
June 28, 2023
More an autobiography of the author than biography of Salinger
Beller’s book is more an autobiography of the author than biography of Salinger, at times interesting, occasionally revealing, often self-indulgent. Worth a read, but not a keeper.
Beller’s book is more an autobiography of the author than biography of Salinger, at times interesting, occasionally revealing, often self-indulgent. Worth a read, but not a keeper.
July 19, 2017
Not worth the time or effort.
November 13, 2017
Interesting anecdotes about the enigma. Short and well done.
March 17, 2022
I was really let down by this. The author spoke more about himself than he did Salinger!
March 8, 2022
This book made me disinterested in Salinger.
May 9, 2014
Who Dini?
The Escape Artist is about J.D. Salinger but it is also about the author himself, his experiences while doing research, the fate of other Salinger biographers, and finally, in some of the books most moving passages, what Salinger's writing meant to him personally. He also weighs in on how ultimately Salinger's Fortress of Solitude failed to protect him from the kryptonite of crazies waving his book around after committing murders, and the crazy rumors that flourished in the vacuum about him when those who knew him refused to say anything whatsoever about Clark Kent due to his zeal for absolute privacy.
There is a passage in The Catcher in the Rye where Holden Caulfield states that he likes to read books that, after you read them, you feel like you know the author well and want to call him up and chat. He has just read Out of Africa and would like to call Isak Dinesen up. He also wishes he could pal around with Ring Lardner. He doesn't feel that way about Somerset Maugham after reading Of Human Bondage, however. It turns out that tons of people feel that way after reading his books, and after trying to answer his fan mail personally it is just too much for him and he becomes a hermit. I remember reading a magazine article that was essentially the saga of a fan who felt such an overwhelming compulsion to meet him that he went searching for him, and when he finally did speak to him, the reclusive author didn't have much to say and was perplexed and bewildered about just exactly what these people expected of him. What did they want? Even though this story was nothing if not anti-climactic, I and no doubt many others read it with interest, curious to know what was going on with him. Was he still writing, and if so, why wasn't he publishing anything? The good news is that he was writing everyday, as he was a writer, and that was his job. The stuff he was writing is going to be published posthumously beginning in 2015, which is next year!
Getting back to The Escape Artist, the author felt he had a lot in common with J.D. Salinger, and he walked the streets where Salinger walked, and went to the places that Salinger went to. He visited the Museum of Natural History, the duck pond, the carousel where Holden took his sister, Phoebe. He got a samizdat copy of the suppressed biography written by Ian Hamilton, before he was forced by the courts to remove passages from Salinger's personal correspondence, and rewrite the book in a much diluted, weaker version, that lacked the unmistakable voice of J.D. Salinger. He almost loses the manuscript, invaluable though it turns out to be in writing The Escape Artist. He goes to a Salinger archive and reads letters himself, but is not allowed to use a laptop or a notepad in the same room. He rushes back and forth from the room to his notepad feeling like the Sorcerer's Apprentice carrying handfuls of water. He like, Salinger, also has stuff published by The New Yorker, and describes what it felt like to have his prose combed over by actual New Yorker editors. The book alternates between talking about his own experiences researching the book and what he discovers about Salinger.
The book is interesting and fun to read because it is well written and because it is about J.D. Salinger, our shared obsession.
The Escape Artist is about J.D. Salinger but it is also about the author himself, his experiences while doing research, the fate of other Salinger biographers, and finally, in some of the books most moving passages, what Salinger's writing meant to him personally. He also weighs in on how ultimately Salinger's Fortress of Solitude failed to protect him from the kryptonite of crazies waving his book around after committing murders, and the crazy rumors that flourished in the vacuum about him when those who knew him refused to say anything whatsoever about Clark Kent due to his zeal for absolute privacy.
There is a passage in The Catcher in the Rye where Holden Caulfield states that he likes to read books that, after you read them, you feel like you know the author well and want to call him up and chat. He has just read Out of Africa and would like to call Isak Dinesen up. He also wishes he could pal around with Ring Lardner. He doesn't feel that way about Somerset Maugham after reading Of Human Bondage, however. It turns out that tons of people feel that way after reading his books, and after trying to answer his fan mail personally it is just too much for him and he becomes a hermit. I remember reading a magazine article that was essentially the saga of a fan who felt such an overwhelming compulsion to meet him that he went searching for him, and when he finally did speak to him, the reclusive author didn't have much to say and was perplexed and bewildered about just exactly what these people expected of him. What did they want? Even though this story was nothing if not anti-climactic, I and no doubt many others read it with interest, curious to know what was going on with him. Was he still writing, and if so, why wasn't he publishing anything? The good news is that he was writing everyday, as he was a writer, and that was his job. The stuff he was writing is going to be published posthumously beginning in 2015, which is next year!
Getting back to The Escape Artist, the author felt he had a lot in common with J.D. Salinger, and he walked the streets where Salinger walked, and went to the places that Salinger went to. He visited the Museum of Natural History, the duck pond, the carousel where Holden took his sister, Phoebe. He got a samizdat copy of the suppressed biography written by Ian Hamilton, before he was forced by the courts to remove passages from Salinger's personal correspondence, and rewrite the book in a much diluted, weaker version, that lacked the unmistakable voice of J.D. Salinger. He almost loses the manuscript, invaluable though it turns out to be in writing The Escape Artist. He goes to a Salinger archive and reads letters himself, but is not allowed to use a laptop or a notepad in the same room. He rushes back and forth from the room to his notepad feeling like the Sorcerer's Apprentice carrying handfuls of water. He like, Salinger, also has stuff published by The New Yorker, and describes what it felt like to have his prose combed over by actual New Yorker editors. The book alternates between talking about his own experiences researching the book and what he discovers about Salinger.
The book is interesting and fun to read because it is well written and because it is about J.D. Salinger, our shared obsession.
January 1, 2015
This was a strange book for me. It wasn't so much a biography as an interpretation of Salinger's biography based on an appreciation of his works. It was confusing to me because it's really for the reader who already knows Salinger's works and biography and wants someone to mash them together into a personal connection. Beller muses on aspects of Salinger's life, visits some of the places Salinger lived, and shares anecdotes he's collected on Salinger from secondhand sources. He talks a lot about Salinger's stories which for me was the most interesting part since I don't know what to make of some of the stories I've read and Beller had some insight into them which gave me a better perspective.
There is a lot I didn't know about Salinger before reading this book but after reading it I still have only a vague idea of his life because the book skips around a lot and is more of an interpretation than a straightforward biography so I still know little of the actual facts of Salinger's life. It seems the author expects the reader to find most of the mundane details in other sources, which is fine to me but it is confusing when you don't realize that to begin with. The book should perhaps come with a caveat telling you to familiarize yourself with his life and works before reading it.
I give it 2.5 stars because although he had a few good points the organization was just too confusing for me and a lot of times I wasn't really sure if the way he interjected so much of his personal life into the book helped or was annoying.
Recommended for anyone who's already read Salinger's works and knows all about his life and is just dying for something more on him.
There is a lot I didn't know about Salinger before reading this book but after reading it I still have only a vague idea of his life because the book skips around a lot and is more of an interpretation than a straightforward biography so I still know little of the actual facts of Salinger's life. It seems the author expects the reader to find most of the mundane details in other sources, which is fine to me but it is confusing when you don't realize that to begin with. The book should perhaps come with a caveat telling you to familiarize yourself with his life and works before reading it.
I give it 2.5 stars because although he had a few good points the organization was just too confusing for me and a lot of times I wasn't really sure if the way he interjected so much of his personal life into the book helped or was annoying.
Recommended for anyone who's already read Salinger's works and knows all about his life and is just dying for something more on him.
August 17, 2014
As with every biography of the super-litigious and private Salinger, this biography is heavily padded and missing the usual details we have come to expect from an author's biography. Thomas Beller is at all times and amiable companion on this journey through Salinger's life.
The most surprising revelation for me was how Salinger became the worst type of religious nut in his later years. (He wrote to his dying New Yorker editor explaining how embracing Zen would cure him of his illness.)
There are also some great stories:
The most surprising revelation for me was how Salinger became the worst type of religious nut in his later years. (He wrote to his dying New Yorker editor explaining how embracing Zen would cure him of his illness.)
There are also some great stories:
Oona had been in Los Angeles spending time with Carol Marcus, who was feverishly corresponding with her newly enlisted husband, William Saroyan. He wrote her every day. He had instructed her to write him back daily. Carol was flustered by the deadlines, and Oona casually remarked that she was getting besieged by letters from Jerry Salinger, and they had some good parts. Why didn’t Carol use them? Thus Jerry Salinger became a kind of Cyrano de Bergerac on behalf of Carol Marcus, who copied out parts of his letters and mailed them off to her husband under her own name.
June 3, 2014
Author
Thomas Beller
Publication Date
June 3, 2014
Synopsis
Much more than your typical biography. Beller has wove Salinger's life throughout his own story and created a beautiful tapestry of life as not just an artist, but as a human being.
High Points
I like that this is so much more than a rehash of Salinger's life. Beller has given us a glimpse of how one's work can intersect and illuminate one's life quite beautifully. This isn't just a biography, it is an ode in prose.
Low Points
My only complaint is that it didn't go on forever.
You'll love it if...
...you are a fan of Salinger. ...you enjoy a "literary journey". ...you love to see how other's interpret an author's work and life and how it effects them.
Overall
5 Stars
E-Galley received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. For more reviews by The Readist, please visit www.thereadist.com.
Thomas Beller
Publication Date
June 3, 2014
Synopsis
Much more than your typical biography. Beller has wove Salinger's life throughout his own story and created a beautiful tapestry of life as not just an artist, but as a human being.
High Points
I like that this is so much more than a rehash of Salinger's life. Beller has given us a glimpse of how one's work can intersect and illuminate one's life quite beautifully. This isn't just a biography, it is an ode in prose.
Low Points
My only complaint is that it didn't go on forever.
You'll love it if...
...you are a fan of Salinger. ...you enjoy a "literary journey". ...you love to see how other's interpret an author's work and life and how it effects them.
Overall
5 Stars
E-Galley received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. For more reviews by The Readist, please visit www.thereadist.com.
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