Salinger has been in the spotlight in recent weeks something the famously reclusive author would probably have hated. Admittedly, there is less about j d salinger than some of us might be expecting from the title, but joanna rakoffs year working for salingers agent and the small amount of contact she did have with the author certainly had an influence on her and she has now, at the very least, read, enjoyed and benefited from reading salingers books. Shes written a book about her days behind the scenes. Salinger jerome david salinger was born in 1919 and raised in new york city. Like rona jaffes novel of the 50s, the best of everything a book that rakoff loves and reread before she started work on my salinger year. My salinger year the guardian best books of 2014 goodreads choice awards finalist bookpage best books of 2014 bookriot best books of 2014 booktopia books of the year amazon best book of the month, june 2014 summer must read books poignant, keenly observed, and irresistible. He led a private life of immense secrecy and speculation. Admittedly, there is less about j d salinger than some of us might be expecting from the title, but joanna rakoffs year working for salinger s agent and the small amount of contact she did have with the author certainly had an influence on her and she has now, at the very least, read, enjoyed and benefited from reading salinger s books.
In new york citys late nineties, a young aspiring writer lands a dayjob at j. My salinger year is not, in the first place, another nonfiction narrative like ian hamiltons in search of j. Joanna rakoff on her extraordinary comingofage memoir of new yorks literary world. Oct 21, 2014 joanna rakoffs my salinger year is the latest bibliomemoir a mix of criticism, biography and memoir.
My salinger year tells the story of rakoffs first job as a literary assistant to the agency representing j. On books and arts daily you can find a longer version of this interview. It explores salingers life, with emphasis on his military service in world war ii, his posttraumatic stress disorder, his subsequent writing career, his. Thomas bellers the escape artist and joanna rakoffs my salinger year are the latest additions to the flood of information about j. My salinger year author joanna rakoff talks about her. Charming and deeply moving, filled with electrifying glimpses of an american literary icon, my salinger year is the comingofage story of a talented writer. Her engrossing memoir, my salinger year, details her brushes with the reclusive authorand her own coming of age. My salinger year is her second novel, a memoir which beautifully evokes the literary world of 1990s new york. Oct 25, 2017 i didnt read raise high the roof beam, carpenters and seymour, an introduction two very short books in one short volume although i lied to my yearold friends and said i had in an attempt to seem cool.
After briefly attending new york and columbia universities, salinger concentrated on writing. The next thing you know im in parnassus raving about salinger to kathy schultenover, our excellent leader of book club discussions, and she said she might be interested in doing franny and zooey for the classics book club. Jul 02, 2015 poignant, keenly observed and irresistibly funny, my salinger year is a memoir about literary new york in the late 1990s, a predigital world on the cusp of vanishing, where a young woman finds herself swept into one of the last great stories and entangled with one of the last great figures of the century. She has a huge student debt to pay off and she gets a job in one of new yorks oldest, most prestigious literary agencies. The charismatic actor brings memories of mexico and a nose for authenticity to his performance as felix gallardo. Her first real job at 23, rakoff finds herself stepping back in time. This might seem like a fairly obvious fact given that the blurb clearly says its a memoir, but somehow, until i read the authors introduction, i remained convinced that. My salinger year joanna rakoff the london magazine.
She arrived not in wonderland, but a place something like it, a new york city firm she calls only the agency. In 1996, at the age of 23, joanna rakoff got a job as an assistant at a oncevenerable manhattan literary. Rakoff doesnt read a scrap of his work until the last quarter of. An aspiring poet lands a position as an assistant to j. It wasnt until the end of the year that salinger had a story accepted called slight rebellion off madison. Joanna rakoff bloomsbury in her memoir, joanna rakoff delivers a charming account of the year she spent working for the new york literary agency that represented author jd salinger. My salinger year is a treat even jerry might have enjoyed rachel cooke observer an elegant memoir jane shilling sunday telegraph in prose that is clear, precise and evocative, rakoff renders her people and places touchably real hannah mcgill independent this is a funny, delightful, comingofage memoir that completely. A college grad takes a clerical job working for the literary agent of the renowned, reclusive writer j. He won early acclaim for his short stories, which he began submitting to the new yorker magazine before he was drafted into the army in 1942. Salinger 1988, that is, an autobiographical account of a mildly. My salinger year, joanna rakoffs breezy memoir of being a bright. Jun 19, 2014 author joanna rakoff spent a year as the secretarial assistant to j.
Rakoff uses a selectric typewriter and dictaphone to transcribe letters from her boss, who. My salinger year by joanna rakoff last year brought a resurgence of interest in j. After leaving graduate school to pursue her dream of becoming a poet, joanna rakoff takes a job as assistant to the storied literary agent for j. That is the premise of my salinger year by joanna rakoff. The title of kenneth slawenskis biography, the first major work on the author since his death one year ago, is j. The story of her year working for the catcher in the rye authors agent is one of the. Rakoffs novel a fortunate age was a new york times editors choice and a san francisco chronicle best seller. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. In 1948, his critically acclaimed story a perfect day for bananafish appeared in the new yorker, which became home to much. Keenly observed and irresistibly funny, my salinger year is a memoir about literary new york in the late nineties, a predigital world on the cusp of vanishing. My salinger year, joanna rakoffs breezy memoir of being a bright young assistant in the mid1990s, opens with her decision to.
Above all, it is a testament to the universal power of books to shape our lives and awaken our true selves. A 20 documentary and related book, salinger, claimed that mr. The following is from my salinger year, a memoir about literary new york in the late nineties. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading my salinger year. My salinger year summary my salinger year by joanna rakoff at twentythree, after leaving graduate school to pursue her dreams of becoming a poet, joanna rakoff moves to new york city and takes a job as assistant to the storied literary agent for j.
Like other works in the small but not statistically insignificant subgenre of salingerian memoir, my salinger year should be approached in full awareness of a wretched operating paradox. Read an excerpt from joanna rakoffs memoir, my salinger year. The book that has done just that for me is joanna rakoffs my salinger year, an earnest, evocative account of her year in the mid1990s spent working at a literary agency in new york. Joanna rakoff has just dropped out of a phd course. Odd on a different level is the fact that this book has close to nothing to do with salinger. Set in manhattan during the late 1990s, my salinger year is a memoir of a time and place that can evoke nostalgia for those who lived there and during those times. Sep 15, 2014 in the ending, the conditions of her current life, particularly her love life, are left muddled, and she leaves many pertinent questions unanswered. Salingers third book, franny and zooey, came out in 1961, and included two previously published novellas about the glass family. Poignant, keenly observed and irresistibly funny, my salinger year is a memoir about literary new york in the late 1990s, a predigital world on the cusp of. A sharply observed comingofage memoir about an aspiring writers entrylevel job at a fading literary agency. My salinger year is a beautiful memoir, one that expertly documents the trials and joys of making ones way in the big city.
I fell in love with my salinger year like the young joanna rakoff falls in love with the books in itdeeply, with abandon, letting the world fall away. In 1941, salinger began submitting short stories to the new yorker, many of which were rejected. Entertainment weekly my salinger year describes its authors trip down a metaphorical rabbit hole back in 1996. Her memoir, my salinger year, is a semifinalist in the 2014 goodreads choice awards. Sep 05, 20 there is a lot of prurient gossip about salinger and his courtship of teenage not, to be sure, prepubescent girls, although it does seem that if you had been imprinted on, and then rejected by. Jul 14, 2014 joanna rakoff, author of my salinger year, says her contact with j. Though the title mentions salinger, he is not the main focus of my salinger year. Sure, he makes appearances, but this is more of a coming of age story about a young girl trying to make it in nyc and a company trying to adjust to the modern world. Im sure if youre internetsavvy and care enough, its easy to find out the agencys actual name. Never, never, never give out his address or phone number. Book 7 of 2020 my salinger year my salinger year is actually the year 1996, and joanna rakoff has managed to bag a graduate job at the agency a literary agency whose most prominent clientele includes the titular jd salinger. May 29, 2014 this memoir mourns a mode of existence that was endangered at the time, is a nearimpossibility now, and was perhaps never much more than a dream. That sentence tells you everything you need to know about how cool i was in junior high. Rakoff has drawn on her experience working at an oldfashioned literary agency in.
It takes a very unique style to draw me into a memoir, and the author had that, as i was engaged from the very first page. Salinger kept in touch with burnett throughout his career and he became salingers mentor. The problem was that i was giving my yearold self too much credit. A profile of salinger in time magazine noted, as nearly as is possible in an age in which all relations are public and this, people, was in prefacebook 1961. There are many beautiful moments in my salinger year that truly capture the romance of being young in new york city, of striving, of being poor, of figuring out ones life.
Salingers life and career from the buzz over three previously unpublished short stories leaked to the internet to the double whammy of david shieldss and shane salernos book and documentary film, both titled, aptly enough, salinger. My salinger year, joanna rakoff chatelaine book club. Salinger left her feeling that he was very different from this popular portrayal of him. My salinger year is joanna rakoffs account of her first job in a new york publishing agency. Salinger s longtime agent, not realizing that being yelled at by the star client is part of the job.
You do not have to be a salinger fan to enjoy this book. Some sources believe there may be at least 10 completed novels hidden in salingers house. January 1, 1919 january 27, 2010 was an american writer best known for his novel the catcher in the rye salinger published several short stories in story magazine in the early 1940s before serving in world war ii. Although salinger continued to write till the end of his days, the catcher in the rye remains his only published novel. A life, but there is no easy way to approach the subject. Joanna rakoff won the goldberg prize for jewish fiction by emerging writers and the elle readers prize for her first novel, a fortunate age.
In 1996, joanna rakoff got a job as an assistant at a literary agency whose star client was j. Jun 06, 2014 above all, my salinger year is the tale of a young woman accustomed to having her lifes course dictated by others her father, her boyfriend, her boss as she comes to the realisation that it is. The book is an oral biographical portrait of reclusive american author j. Joanna rakoffs novel a fortunate age won the goldberg prize for fiction, and was a new york times editors choice, an elle and booklist best book of 2009, and a san francisco chronicle best seller.
Though a third book brought even more attention, his reputation as a hermit was already sealed. Jun 08, 2014 my salinger year, joanna rakoffs breezy memoir of being a bright young assistant in the mid1990s, opens with her decision to leave graduate school, desert her nice college. Sep 11, 2015 like many recent graduates rakoff found herself in the outofuniversity predicament, the pivot year, the year of change, of new directions and finding ones feet. Salinger, as wilfrid sheed long ago pointed out in the best thing ever written about his style, was first of all a humorist, trained on other. The story of rakoffs experience as a young woman in the 90s living in nyc and working at the literary agency representing reclusive legend, j.
Joanna is a young english major who wants to become a writer. But she barely has time to pursue her goal when she gets hired as an assistant in a venerable literary agency that seems stuck in time. I was initially attracted to this memoir, not because of the salinger connection whose books i have never read but because it was set in a literary agency and i am always interested in what goes on the behind the scenes of book publishing. Salinger stunned the literary world when he allowed a 26,000word story hed written to be published. My salinger year, by joanna rakoff the new york times. Salingers longtime agent, not realizing that being yelled at by the star client is part of the job. These books claim kinship, admit love, announce fellowfeeling with the legendary author, all the while gaily subverting what appears to have been a profound impulse in salingers life. Salinger, a client whose soaring popularity resulted in vast, unmanageable amounts of fan mail. But my salinger year is more than just a snapshot of a particular time and place. Salinger had left five new works to be released between 2015 and 2020. May 12, 2015 the following is from my salinger year, a memoir about literary new york in the late nineties. How reading shapes our lives joanna rakoffs my salinger year is the latest bibliomemoir a mix of criticism, biography and.
But between the september biopic, rebel in the rye, and a recent new york times article about possible new books from the author, hes getting more attention than ever. My salinger year, by joanna rakoff the washington post. The author establishes herself as something of an innocent, a masters grad who wanted to write poetry but required a job to tide. Though rakoff earned acclaim for her debut novel a fortunate age, 2009, her memoir is more engaging, particularly for its mastery of tone.
Mar 01, 2008 book 7 of 2020 my salinger year my salinger year is actually the year 1996, and joanna rakoff has managed to bag a graduate job at the agency a literary agency whose most prominent clientele includes the titular jd salinger. The agency itself is fertile ground for description, existing in a kind of nostalgic haze, with its dark wood panelling, low green lamps, and resolute lack of. Entertainment weekly my salinger year describes its authors trip down. Once upon a time, not so very long ago, there existed a world in which. So why does my salinger year, joanna rakoffs new memoir not even fiction, and, most improbably of all, set in 1996 feel so akin to those earlier books. Poignant, keenly observed and irresistibly funny, my salinger year is a memoir about literary new york in the late 1990s, a predigital world on the cusp of vanishing, where a young woman finds herself swept into one of the last great stories and entangled with one of the last great figures of the century. Joanna rakoff, author of my salinger year, says her contact with j. Buy my salinger year book online at low prices in india my. Her boss margaret, stoic and also from another era, is j.