Rating: ★★★☆☆
Links: Amazon • TBD • Goodreads
Publication Date: September 1961
Source: Purchased (twice)
The short story, Franny, takes place in an unnamed college town and tells the tale of an undergraduate who is becoming disenchanted with the selfishness and inauthenticity she perceives all around her.
The novella, Zooey, is named for Zooey Glass, the second-youngest member of the Glass family. As his younger sister, Franny, suffers a spiritual and existential breakdown in her parents’ Manhattan living room — leaving Bessie, her mother, deeply concerned — Zooey comes to her aid, offering what he thinks is brotherly love, understanding, and words of sage advice.
When I was in high school, this guy I was kind of/sort of friends with gave me a list of 25 books everyone needs to read before they turn 25. I checked a lot of them out from the library and bought a bunch of the others. Franny and Zooey was one of those that I bought, but I’ve moved a lot since I graduated from high school and it got lost somewhere. Over the summer, I bought myself another copy so that I could finally take it off my TBR.
I can tell you one thing — I would have hated this book (which is really two separate yet connected stories) if I’d read it in high school. Luckily, my reading tastes as an adult are a bit different. I enjoyed Franny, but Zooey did leave a bit to be desired. I think my biggest problem with Zooey is that I was so annoyed with him that I couldn’t bring myself to read more than a few pages at a time. I finished Franny in about 45 minutes. Zooey took me four days.
After loving my reread of The Catcher in the Rye so much, I kind of expected to love Franny and Zooey more. It was still a good story, just not quite as good as I’d hoped.
#killingthetbr: eleven(ish) years on shelf
Have you read Franny and (or) Zooey? Do you like to read classics?
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The Bibliophagist 