FRANNY AND ZOOEY by J. D. Salinger

Refinished We 1/20/21- Biden Inauguration Day. I finished the book after a walk downtown to mail back a couple of Netflix discs and to check the 'military presence' around the capitol. Guardsmen and cops blocked in front of Boone's Saloon and along 2nd St.- East, and Jefferson- North.

I know I've read this before, but it was probably close to fifty years ago. But I still think it's a better book than 'CATCHER IN THE RYE'. Anything about the Glass family is worth a look. 

***Some random thoughts on the book:

Two Sections:

1) Franny at college and can't stop cutting down the people in her life. The action happens at a restaurant. Franny is visiting her boyfriend, Lane, for the weekend. 

2) Franny is home with her brother, Zooey, and her mother Bess. Zooey is in the bathtub reading an old letter from his brother, Buddy. Bess is in the bathroom bothering him. Then Zooey tries to help his sister with her confusion.  

I think I liked it better this time and I missed most of it fifty years ago. 

Franny and Zooey are the youngest of the Glass family.

Franny is having difficulty accepting The Jesus Prayer. It seems that all of the Glass children have had a go at this prayer. To Pray Unceasingly. 

The both feel eclipsed by their over achieving siblings.

The Glass children seem to let their intellectual superiority get in their own way.

Obsessed with all 'the phoniness' of the world at large. This echoes the theme of 'CATCHER IN THE RYE'.

All the 'Deplorables' are human too, and if you think that's not important, but Jesus does. 

The book's page at Wikipedia: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franny_and_Zooey

 

THE LAST MILE by David Baldacci

 Finished Su 1/18/21

This is a paperback that Janny loaned me the last time they visited. It's like all Baldacci novels, an enthralling plot, yet little character development and not much noteworthy writing. 

A black man is headed for the NFL when he is convicted of murdering his parents. Miles Mars serves twenty years on death row in Texas when another man confesses to the murders. Then, we learn that Miles's father is behind the murders...but why?

His father was white and mother was black. Later we learn that his father was involved with Klan bombings in the south during the 60's.

The plot was so contrived that it bordered on the unbelievable. 

"It's fun while you're reading it, but you'll hate yourself in the morning".

One of the officers, Amos Decker, suffered from 'synesthesia'  and 'hypermnesia'.

***SYNESTHESIA- When one sense is activated, another unrelated sense is activated at the same time; when you 'remember' you see color. When Decker thinks of murder he sees blue. 

***HYPERMNESIA- unusual power or enhancement of memory, typically under abnormal conditions such as trauma, hypnosis, or narcosis. Miles Mars was tackled his first game in the NFL and ended his career, but heightened his ability to remember almost everything he has experienced. Marilu Henner (TAXI) has this condition.

From the book's page at Amazon:

"Amos Decker's life changed forever--twice.

The first time was on the gridiron. A big, towering athlete, he was the only person from his hometown of Burlington ever to play in the NFL. But his career ended before it had a chance to begin. On his very first play, a violent helmet-to-helmet collision knocked him off the field forever, and left him with an improbable side effect--he can forget nothing.

The second time was at home nearly two decades later. Now a police detective, Decker returned from a stakeout one evening and entered a nightmare--his wife, young daughter, and brother-in-law had been murdered.

His family destroyed, their killer's identity as mysterious as the motive behind the crime, and unable to forget a single detail from that horrible night, Decker finds his world collapsing around him. He leaves the police force, loses his home, and winds up on the street, taking piecemeal jobs as a private investigator when he can.

But over a year later, a man turns himself in to the police and confesses to the murders. At the same time a horrific event nearly brings Burlington to its knees, and Decker is called back in to help with this investigation. Decker also seizes his chance to learn what really happened to his family that night. To uncover the stunning truth, he must use his remarkable gifts and confront the burdens that go along with them. He must endure the memories he would much rather forget. And he may have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Memory Man will stay with you long after the turn of the final page." 

EMPIRE FALLS by Richard Russo

 Finished Tu 1/5/21- First book o the new year...

This is one of my ancient trade paperbacks that I had never read. I remember how much I liked the movie 'NOBODY'S FOOL' that was written by Russo and starred Paul Newman.

The reason that 'EMPIRE FALLS' caught my attention was that I read an excerpt from a book about the Trumps where Ivanka, his daughter, was asked if she had read 'EMPIRE FALLS', she replied...."Why would you ask me to read a book about fucking poor people". 

Set in 20th century Maine in a town that used to be supported by a shirt factory. The factory has been closed for many years, yet the elderly female owner still lives in the town and is a 'behind the scenes' mover and shaker. Miles, who owns a local diner and he is the central protagonist. He's in the middle of a divorce from a woman who wants out to marry the owner of the local health club, Walt. 

It's a sprawling novel with brilliantly written characters. This is probably the best book about the Northeast in areas that have been abandoned by industry.

Link to the books page at Wikipedia. This is a comprehensive look at the novel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Falls

I just noticed that the movie was made as a HBO mini-series in 2005. It's two discs and I put it in my queue at Netflix.