Nine stories

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English cover picture

Jerome D. Salinger's short story collection Nine Stories ( Nine Stories ) appeared ersts 1953 at Little, Brown and Company . The first German translation by Elisabeth Schnack (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9) and Annemarie and Heinrich Böll (3, 4, 8) was published in 1966 by Kiepenheuer & Witsch and in 1968 as a paperback by Rowohlt Verlag . In 2012, a new translation of Eike Schönfeld's nine stories was published , which was reprinted in 2019.

Most of the stories were first printed in the New Yorker from 1948 to 1951 and published together as a book in 1953.

The volume marks Salinger's intermediate creative period between the world success The Catcher in the Rye (1951) and the lesser-known stories Franny and Zooey (1961). However, most of the stories were published individually in magazines even before the catcher . The background of almost all stories is the world of the upper middle class of New York and the New England states during and after World War II . With sharply outlined snapshots, Salinger allows a glimpse beneath the surface of the American way of life and notes a profound uncertainty in his characters, which is due not least to a pronounced sensitivity to everyday phenomena.

The stories

  1. A wonderful day for Banana Fish ( A Perfect Day for Banana Fish )
  2. Uncle jelly in Connecticut ( Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut )
  3. Shortly before the war against the Eskimos (Just Before the War with the Eskimos)
  4. The Laughing Man (The Laughing Man)
  5. Down by the boat ( Down at the Dinghy )
  6. For Esmé with Love and refuse (For Esmé - with Love and Squalor)
  7. Pretty mouth, green my eyes (Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes)
  8. The blue period of Mr de Daumier-Smith (De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period)
  9. Teddy (teddy)

Contents and classification in Salinger's work

A Glorious Day for Banana Fish - An Ideal Day for Banana Fish [2012] - ( A Perfect Day for Bananafish )

The story consists of two scenes : A young woman calls her mother on the phone from a hotel during her honeymoon . She tries to allay her mother's concerns about her husband, who appears to be mentally ill. Meanwhile, husband Seymour Glass is talking to a little girl on the beach. He returns to the hotel, where he finds his wife sleeping, and shoots himself.

The story varies a main theme of Salinger: Child innocence fails in the world. The naive, charming little girl on the beach will inevitably become just as hypocritical as the grown woman in the hotel and just as bigoted and self-centered as the mother-in-law on the other end of the phone. Assuming the other Seymour Glass stories from Salinger, "A wonderful day for banana fish" is the culmination of a failure; Seymour's attempt to save the innocence, wonder and honesty of his childhood into his adult life has failed.

→ Main article: A Perfect Day for Bananafish

Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut - Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut [2012] - ( Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut )

Mary Jane visits Eloise, her old college friend . Your familiar conversation turns into a balancing comparison between the hopes of youth and the reality of adult life. The anchor point in the past is Eloise's great love, Walt Glass, who died young. From the perspective of the two disaffected women, it becomes a symbol of unfulfilled hopes. The motif of the discrepancy between illusion and reality is repeated in the figure of Eloise's little daughter Ramona, who plays with an imagined friend, speaks and shares her bed. In contrast, Eloise's maid Grace has a very real husband, whom Eloise forbids in an unfavorable way to stay in Grace's room.

Here, too, it is about a central motif of Salinger's stories, about the upper middle class, which despite financial independence and more positive outward appearances has problems, but which only emerge when looking closely at the scene, or when "filtering out" crucial subordinate clauses or in the subtext of dialogues reveal. The rich, presumably good-looking woman meets an old college friend, both have not finished their studies, both - especially Eloise - are unhappy with their husband, both get drunk. Through long dialogues and the seemingly exaggerated scenic observations, Salinger succeeds in creating a picture that reveals problems and perhaps even suggests solutions.

→ Main article: Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut

Shortly before the war against the Eskimos (Just Before the War with the Eskimos)

After a tennis match, Ginny visits her school friend Selena to assert her right to money as she always pays for the taxi. This makes her wait while Ginny meets Selena's brother Franklin, who is blasé and shows off his behavior. She talks to him, then, when Selena comes back, demands not to collect the money and goes home.

The German translation by Heinrich Böll is interesting in that the two young adults see each other, which seems strange. In this case, the English "you" can be thought of as "you".

The Laughing Man (The Laughing Man)

A young New York student does various activities in their free time (sports, museum, etc.) with a group of boys (Comanche Club). On the way home, he tells them a sequel fantasy story of the laughing man, and he keeps inventing new episodes. The boys eagerly listen, always curious to see what happens next. Even the chief's personal life seems to influence the story, which ultimately ends tragically.

In no other story by Salinger is the love for his youth as palpable as here. Apparently, this time was the most beautiful and irretrievable for Salinger.

Down at the boat - Am Dingi [2012] - ( Down at the Dinghy )

Down at the Dinghy was originally published in Harper's Magazine in April 1949. In this tale, the first daughter of the Glass family, Beatrice "Boo Boo" Glass Tannenbaum, is introduced. The story begins with a conversation between two housemaids, Mrs. Snell and Sandra, who discuss the behavior of Boo Boo's son Lionel. The reader learns that he likes to run away. Boo Boo talks to the two of them and then walks down to the pier. She finds Lionel in a boat, ready to leave, and pretends to be an admiral in order to find out Lionel's reasons for running away. After a while he tells her the reason, she comforts him and they run back to the house. "Lionel won". A wonderful story about communication and empathy.

→ Main article: Down at the Dinghy

For Esmé with love and rubbish - For Esmé - in love and misery [2012] (For Esmé - with Love and Squalor)

England, shortly before the end of the Second World War: an American soldier attends a choir rehearsal for a youth or children's choir on a rainy day. Afterwards, he happened to meet the girl Esmé, whose beautiful voice caught his eye, and talked to her and her younger brother. He learns of the death of her father, whom she loved and befriends her on a very intellectual level. He is a writer and promises to dedicate a story to her. In return, she wants to write to him. - In the second part of the story we get to know two soldiers stationed in Germany after the end of the war, one of whom is mentally badly damaged. He finds a parcel in his mail that contains a letter and a watch; a gift from the girl.

Pretty mouth, green my eyes - Pretty my mouth, eyes green [2012] - (Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes)

Lee, a lawyer, is in bed with a woman when he receives a call from his friend Arthur. Arthur is upset because his wife is not home yet. He suspects that once again she has had too much to drink and, as has often been the case, is cheating on him with someone. Lee tries to calm Arthur down and is watched coolly by Joanie, who follows the conversation and smokes cigarettes. The conversation ends, the two in bed each react in their own way with unease about the situation, but immediately afterwards Arthur calls again and tells a long story about why Joan, who had just come home, was stopped.

The blue period of Mr de Daumier-Smith - De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period [2012] - (De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period)

The narrator, a young painter, applies to teach in Montreal at a private Japanese-led art academy . Immediately accepted, he travels there and is accepted by the owners of the operators of the academy, a Japanese couple. Initially only used as a translator, which hurts him, he is eventually assigned students whose work he is supposed to correct. He is particularly taken with a portrait of a young nun, whose work he withholds from his superior. The story ends with the note that the academy closed again after a few weeks because apparently no license was available. The narrator moves back to his stepfather in Rhode Island to continue his studies at the art school.

Teddy (teddy)

In the last story of the cycle, Salinger's interest in Buddhist ways of thinking comes into play. Ten-year-old boy Teddy McArdle is approached by a young man (Bob Nicholson) on a cruise. Teddy travels with his parents. The highly gifted boy is known from lectures at various universities. Thoughts of death seem to move him. In the course of the conversations between Bob and Teddy, Bob's points of view are repeatedly called into question. Teddy, for example, is convinced that one must free oneself from logic and meditate if “we” want to “see things as they really are”. Bob would like to know more, but Teddy breaks off the conversation, says goodbye and goes to his swimming lesson. The story ends with a child crying.

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