J. D. Salinger
Sander Hill Road
Cornish, New Hampshire 03745

Dear J.D. Salinger:

I read 'Catcher in the Rye' when I was in high school and it's an experience that I will always remember.

I spent a week in April hunched over a desk in a windowless room in a school library under a bright fluorescent light hammering out a term paper, based on the death imagery in 'Catcher in the Rye' (e.g. Holden Caulfield's identification with mummies, his slang use of the term death - how could I ever forget?).

I would just like to personally thank you for not publishing anything since 1965 as if you did, it would have been a painful reminder of that lost week in April when that red-covered book of yours falsely-imprisoned me in that drab cinder block-walled room.

Oh that reminds me, I would like to recommend a book for you to read, Charles Dickens' 'David Copperfield' - it's an excellent read.

Congratulations, you have been a major influence on such writers as Ethan Hawke, who credits you for inspiring his novel 'Ash Wednesday.' Obviously, your life as a writer has not been in vain.

I hear they're making a musical out of 'Catcher in the Rye' called, 'Phonies!'

You know how in 'A Perfect Day for Bananafish', Seymour kills himself, I was always deeply troubled by that because I have the best recipe for banana fish: 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons curry powder, 1/4 teaspoon soy sauce, 4 bananas, 1 pound cod, 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, 3 celery ribs, sliced, 4 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and if Seymour had tried this, I don't think he would have killed himself.
It must be difficult to be a recluse when there is a web site called Directions-J.D.Salinger-shouse.com. Of course if you don't use the hyphen, you'll be sent to a porn site.

I've always thought that you can just write some of the catchiest titles, like 'Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters,' it just rolls off the tongue.

You should consider writing a sequel to, 'Catcher in the Rye.' Holden goes to a state college, joins a fraternity but like there's this Dean, who doesn't approve of this fraternity and wants to shut them down, so he puts the fraternity on double secret probation. But Holden and his ragtag frat buddies want to throw this one last toga party to defy the Dean. It should be called, 'Catcher in the Rye Too: Raise the Roof [beams], Sigma Chis or something clever, insert here)!' Maybe it should also have sword-fighting; Holden is on the fencing team, the university wants to shut down the fencing team, but the fencing team goes crazy, sort of like 'Taps.'


Very truly yours,


Casey Flynn