Book of the week - My Salinger year

Starting this week I am trying out something new on my blog. New year and new me and all of that jazz. As many of you know, I am quite an avid reader, I get a bit panicky if I don't have a book in hand and another lined up to read straight after so with that in mind and the fact that I am getting through 3-4 books in the average week, I have decided to pick one each week to feature in my blog. Prepare for exciting times ahead, sort of. I generally have fairly decent taste in books, if I can claim in that in so much that taste in books is quite a subjective thing but my hope is that fellow book lovers can find their next book to read out of the many I dive into.

 So to kick this off my very first choice is A book called my Salinger year by Joanna Rakoff, It is a book I have heard loads about or at least seen mentioned many times in the forums I trawl online for books ( by this I mean on twitter, instagram and Facebook and not that I frequent online book forums if such a thing exists) and much as I love to lose myself in an excellent piece of fiction, I can equally enjoy the factual worlds of interesting people.

 Joanna Rakoff story is that she worked for a literary agent in New York in the 1980's for a year and it was an agency that represented J.D. Salinger among other writers. It's in an insight into the literary world but also gives you glimpses of what J.D. Salinger himself was like. If for some reason you have never heard of him, he is most famous for writing the catcher in the rye. I know it a highly praised piece of work but I remember not particularly enjoying it. I don't think it's a critique of his particular writing style but more that I never really warmed to the central character Holden Caulfield and found him to be both pretentious and obnoxious. Mind you I was 17 when I read it and stubborn as a goat so I am not sure was it my young mind that formed this impression or was it merely me rebelling against the idea that I should love this book and identify with Holden's teenage angst just because everyone else does. Whatever the reason I have carried this impression of his writing with me ever since and I  am now thinking that perhaps I should read it again as an adult and form new impressions.

 Even without particularly being a J.D Salinger fan, this book was incredibly interesting. Some salient details were altered to protect the privacy of those mentioned in the book but otherwise it is a fascinating inside look at life in a literary agency. As a writer ( sort of) and reader myself I lapped all the details of the inner workings of the office Joanna worked in. I enjoyed the correspondence from fans trying to reach J.D Salinger and the glimpses at the true character of the man himself. I had not realised how much of a mystery he was to the public at the time. At times I forgot it was based on true events as it read much like a novel and I found myself getting very wrapped up in personal life of ms Rakoff herself. It is of no great surprise that she went on to become a successful writer. I was enjoying reading the book so much that I had trouble putting it down to engage like a normal person although that's not an infrequent occurrence for me. I would highly recommend this goes into your reading pile whether you are a J.D. Salinger fan or just a fan of really good books. 

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