JD Salinger, the famously reclusive author, is probably best known for his novel about teen angst (among other things), The Catcher in the Rye. I like the novel, but I've always been much more interested in Salinger's short stories, many of which focus on the Glass family. This family consists of:
Mom
Dad (to be honest, I can't remember the parents' names offhand, which is probably terrible, but it's the kids who are the most interesting. There's a chance they're named Leo and Bessie, but I could be way off).
Seymour
Buddy
Walt
Waker
Boo-Boo
Franny
Zooey
This is a big family, at least by today's standards. Their names seem pretentious somehow, and perhaps they are a bit. The characters themselves are a bit pretentious too, but not in a way that makes you hate them. They're all extremely precocious - as children each of them is featured on a radio program basically consisting of a panel of precocious kids talking about various issues.
Seymour is the oldest, maybe the smartest, and he and Buddy (who is kind of a sidekick) are the ringleaders of the family. They have a lot of influence over their younger siblings, shaping their upbringing in a very deep way. They are interested in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Chinese and Japanese poetry among other things. As adults, both Seymour and Buddy do normal-people things like join the army during WWII, but normal life doesn't really suit Seymour so well (he suffers from depression and eventually commits suicide).
Walt is killed in the war, and his twin Waker becomes a monk. Boo-Boo gets married and has kids. Franny suffers from young-person angst a la Holden Caulfield, and Zooey (the youngest brother) is an actor. On the whole, the family is a bit much, but they're somehow likeably smart, quirky, not particularly successful as adults, and the kind of people you might want to spend time with but not a family you'd likely want to marry into.
"Raise high the roof beam, carpenters. Like Ares comes the bridegroom, taller far than a tall man."
Mom
Dad (to be honest, I can't remember the parents' names offhand, which is probably terrible, but it's the kids who are the most interesting. There's a chance they're named Leo and Bessie, but I could be way off).
Seymour
Buddy
Walt
Waker
Boo-Boo
Franny
Zooey
This is a big family, at least by today's standards. Their names seem pretentious somehow, and perhaps they are a bit. The characters themselves are a bit pretentious too, but not in a way that makes you hate them. They're all extremely precocious - as children each of them is featured on a radio program basically consisting of a panel of precocious kids talking about various issues.
Seymour is the oldest, maybe the smartest, and he and Buddy (who is kind of a sidekick) are the ringleaders of the family. They have a lot of influence over their younger siblings, shaping their upbringing in a very deep way. They are interested in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Chinese and Japanese poetry among other things. As adults, both Seymour and Buddy do normal-people things like join the army during WWII, but normal life doesn't really suit Seymour so well (he suffers from depression and eventually commits suicide).
Walt is killed in the war, and his twin Waker becomes a monk. Boo-Boo gets married and has kids. Franny suffers from young-person angst a la Holden Caulfield, and Zooey (the youngest brother) is an actor. On the whole, the family is a bit much, but they're somehow likeably smart, quirky, not particularly successful as adults, and the kind of people you might want to spend time with but not a family you'd likely want to marry into.
"Raise high the roof beam, carpenters. Like Ares comes the bridegroom, taller far than a tall man."
