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Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters; and, Seymour: An Introduction (Bantam)
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Manufacturer: Bantam Books
Author: J. D. Salinger
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Manufacturer: Bantam Books
Author: J. D. Salinger
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Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters; and, Seymour: An Introduction (Bantam) Description
Binding: Paperback
Label: Bantam Books
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
Publication Date: 1965
Publisher: Bantam Books
Studio: Bantam Books
Label: Bantam Books
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
Publication Date: 1965
Publisher: Bantam Books
Studio: Bantam Books
Editorial Review of Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters; and, Seymour: An Introduction (Bantam)
Customer Reviews of Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters; and, Seymour: An Introduction (Bantam)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Crashing into reality...
Review: First, let me say that I enjoyed "Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters". It was straight-forward and enjoyable. Whilst much of Salinger's writing has mystified readers and lends itself to a deeper reading, this story seems quite simple and enjoyable. It is, no more nor less, the story of Buddy Glass finding out why his brother does not get married on his Wedding Day, and beginning (ending?) to understand his brother Seymour.
The latter half of this book, "Seymour: An Introduction" is nothing more or less than maudlin tripe. I read the reviews here, and I find fault with all of them. This novella (or whatever it is) is not about mysticism. It is not about writing. It is not about art. It is merely the self-important, self-aggrandizing memories of a person who seeks to find a hero, a particularly dead and nepotistic hero, in whose shadow he can bask and feel a sense of rejection for simply not measuring up. We've all had that feeling. Sooner or later, we all grow out of it. The narrator here wants, quite simply, for us to love Seymour as he loved Seymour. In all his glory, with all his warts.
In the end, it was so maudlin that it nearly made me physically ill. I know that this review will be panned. So be it. If you like stories where the narrator is distinctly hero-worshipping his own dead brother for the simple purpose of making himself look bad, petulantly, so that we will feel more sympathy for his lack of Art or of Purpose, then read on. If you loathe this kind of manipulative kitsch, stay away.
Harkius
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: If you hang in there, it's worth the effort.
Review: I'm a longtime lover of Salinger's writing, but I've never been able to get through Seymour. I liked Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, but I would always get bogged down in the first 20-30 pages of Seymour and stop reading it. In the beginning of the story he jumps around a lot, and his paragraphs can go 2 or 3 pages long. I always felt like I was listening to a clever and witty narrator who didn't care at all about connecting with his audience. But after getting through these first pages, I started to really like the writing. There is a great letter from Seymour to Buddy that you're bound to like if you like the emotional, family exchanges in Zooey. There are also some great sections where Buddy speaks directly about what writing means to him. They're fascinating, and you won't find a more moving discussion of writing anywhere.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Are all your stars out?
Review: In some obscure interview from the 1970s an amateur, elderly "reporter" finagled her way into a meeting with Salinger and about the only thing she got out of him other than a raised eyebrow and cold shoulder for having snaked her way into his solitude, was the following quote: "I don't care about politicians - they limit our horizons. I try to expand horizons." I don't recall the context but I think this encapsulates the meaning behind the title "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters". This carpe diem is younger sister Boo Boo's wedding day mantra for Seymour, written with soap on a mirror. It is June 4th, 1942 and a hot New York summer day. Seymour Glass, the Glass family Zen guru and idol, is about to be married to his fiancé Muriel, but does not show, ostensibly because "the flight ceiling" for his plane ride from Ft. Benning, GA did not "raise" in time. Significantly, Buddy is the only Glass family member able to attend his older brother's non-wedding. "Raise High the Roof Beams, Carpenters" is Buddy's detailed recounting of that vacant afternoon six years before Seymour's suicide. It essentially reads like a mystery in that the "action" centers around the question: what's going on with Seymour? Having only read "Nine Stories" and "Franny and Zooey" we have only had snapshots and vague reminiscences of Seymour, mostly from Buddy. Even "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" is supposedly from Buddy's hand. Here, we are tantalized with a little more information, but it's never enough (even the long-winded, obsessive "Seymour, an Introduction" will only wet the appetite of the most devoted Salinger and Glass sage fans). "Raise High" has an easy-going post-war dialogue and banter akin to "Catcher" and "Franny & Zooey", making it an enjoyable read at face-value; but as with most of Salinger's stories there's more than meets the eye. In addition to the mysterious "Fat Lady" we now have the mute, delightfully grinning old man with top-hat and cigar; more ghostly presence than reality. The turgid comments of the bride-to-be's guests are classic Salinger, and we sympathize with irritated brother Buddy's tossing back some scotch as he serves Tom Collins' to them at his apartment. He sneaks away for a moment and reads Seymour's 1941-42 diary, discovering Seymour's self-description as a "paranoiac in reverse who suspects people of trying to make him happy". Even though he claims to be happy with his fiancé, he doesn't really believe that he'll make her happy, and thus an understated hesitancy to marry. Nevertheless, they do elope later that same afternoon despite the non-wedding. As for why Seymour never appears (and he never does physically appear in any story except to die in "Bananafish") the irascible and pushy Matron of Honor disdainfully relates Seymour's phone-call to Muriel the previous night explaining how he was "too happy" to be married and that the wedding needed to be postponed until he felt "steadier". In his diary Seymour writes that he felt "too keyed up to be with people", mystically adding that he was feeling as though "he was about to be born".
This brings up the prophetic story of "Teddy" (1953) which symbolically closes "Nine Stories". Here is the tale of Seymour's reincarnation, as I see it. 1942 is not only the year of Seymour's awkward marriage, it is also the year of young savant Teddy McArdle's birth. As Seymour's dies his "spiritual death", Teddy (whose facial descriptions exactly match those of Seymour as described in "an Introduction", among other uncanny resemblances) is born. At ten, in late 1952 his sage-like qualities renown, in much the same way that adolescent Seymour was a popular TV game-show whiz, Teddy predicts his own death. Through a diary (another common Salinger device for revelation) he provides two possible dates: that same day, 10/28/52 or his 16th birthday on 2/14/58. The connections with these dates are as of yet beyond me, but there are far too many coincidences to not believe that Salinger attaches significance to them. For example, the publishing dates of "Bananafish" (Seymour's death) and "Teddy" (a re-incarnated death) are exactly 5 years apart.
"Seymour, an Introduction" is somewhat of an encomium with profound insights into art, writing, and life (i.e. writing not to please but because "all your stars are out" & giving it your all - and be warned, Salinger is certainly not writing to please here!). This self-described, self-absorbed panegyric is an essential key to understanding the Glass cycle, but leaves more questions than answers. Buddy is revealed to be the author of "Bananfish", "Raise High", in addition to "Zooey" and potentially "Teddy" (there are references to "Catcher in the Rye" it would seem too). Anyhow, this would change our perception of the stories, for the implication would be that Buddy - ostensibly not the disinterested 3rd person of Salinger - has been telling us about Seymour. And even the notoriously unpublished "Hapworth 16, 1924" (available on-line, among several other uncollected, unpublished stories), which the verbose NY Times critic K. Michiko in her 1997 review judges a "sour, implausible and completely charmless story", suggests some sort of "purposeful disfigurement" of a precocious Seymour by an embittered Buddy. Michiko and other critics agree that the implication is that Buddy is jaded and re-writing his family history. Therefore, we would be reading Buddy's "scripts" for his actor siblings. There is some support for this in Salinger's use of the Kafka and Kierkegaard quotes related to this theme in Seymour's "Introduction", but there has to be more to it than that. Seymour speaks through Buddy as though he were an amanuensis for his spirit. From what I've read in "Hapworth" (the real "charmless" thing is having to read on-line!), and likewise with "Raise High" and "Seymour", there is definitely much to be reckoned with here. Only serious readers of Salinger will get it, or want to, but will be gratified I think with the level of depth here.
There is a metaphorical reference to an "outrunning of one another", when Seymour chases down a racing Buddy at the end of "Seymour". At the half way point of that story where Buddy/Salinger takes a two and a half month break from writing due to "acute hepatitis", Seymour overtakes and consumes Salinger (or is it Buddy?). This is an epiphanal moment for those who enjoy Salinger's increasingly elliptical writing and are curious about what he's aiming for with the Glass family. These two stories create more questions than answers, adding a whole new dimension to his earlier stories. The real question is whether or not there will be more revelations to come. Will Salinger, I wonder, have the audacity to produce and print Seymour's hundred some-odd haikus which Buddy so tantalizingly describes to us? Or is this all wishful thinking to hope for more from a man who hasn't published a morsel since 1965? The mystery continues, and sadly, maybe no one (including Salinger himself) cares anymore. Well J.D., shall we indeed see, more?
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: no title
Review: Please note that I am reviewing only "Seymour, an Introduction".
I don't think I'd ever read Salinger before, and this piece was a pleasant surprise. Hard to describe, is it a short novella? Fiction, a homage to Buddy Glass's brother, Seymour, who committed suicide eleven years before, written in the voice of Buddy Glass. This was first published in The New Yorker in 1959. As it is all written as an essay, with no dialogue and precious few paragraphs, I doubt it could get published today. Talkative, conversational style, as if the reader were simply sitting beside him. Of course I liked it. Difficult to believe it is fiction. Or is it? Wonderful line about writing on page 187. If you had your heart's choice, what piece of writing in all the world would you most want to read? Then sit down shamelessly and write the thing yourself.
Review Summary: Crashing into reality...
Review: First, let me say that I enjoyed "Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters". It was straight-forward and enjoyable. Whilst much of Salinger's writing has mystified readers and lends itself to a deeper reading, this story seems quite simple and enjoyable. It is, no more nor less, the story of Buddy Glass finding out why his brother does not get married on his Wedding Day, and beginning (ending?) to understand his brother Seymour.
The latter half of this book, "Seymour: An Introduction" is nothing more or less than maudlin tripe. I read the reviews here, and I find fault with all of them. This novella (or whatever it is) is not about mysticism. It is not about writing. It is not about art. It is merely the self-important, self-aggrandizing memories of a person who seeks to find a hero, a particularly dead and nepotistic hero, in whose shadow he can bask and feel a sense of rejection for simply not measuring up. We've all had that feeling. Sooner or later, we all grow out of it. The narrator here wants, quite simply, for us to love Seymour as he loved Seymour. In all his glory, with all his warts.
In the end, it was so maudlin that it nearly made me physically ill. I know that this review will be panned. So be it. If you like stories where the narrator is distinctly hero-worshipping his own dead brother for the simple purpose of making himself look bad, petulantly, so that we will feel more sympathy for his lack of Art or of Purpose, then read on. If you loathe this kind of manipulative kitsch, stay away.
Harkius
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: If you hang in there, it's worth the effort.
Review: I'm a longtime lover of Salinger's writing, but I've never been able to get through Seymour. I liked Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, but I would always get bogged down in the first 20-30 pages of Seymour and stop reading it. In the beginning of the story he jumps around a lot, and his paragraphs can go 2 or 3 pages long. I always felt like I was listening to a clever and witty narrator who didn't care at all about connecting with his audience. But after getting through these first pages, I started to really like the writing. There is a great letter from Seymour to Buddy that you're bound to like if you like the emotional, family exchanges in Zooey. There are also some great sections where Buddy speaks directly about what writing means to him. They're fascinating, and you won't find a more moving discussion of writing anywhere.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Are all your stars out?
Review: In some obscure interview from the 1970s an amateur, elderly "reporter" finagled her way into a meeting with Salinger and about the only thing she got out of him other than a raised eyebrow and cold shoulder for having snaked her way into his solitude, was the following quote: "I don't care about politicians - they limit our horizons. I try to expand horizons." I don't recall the context but I think this encapsulates the meaning behind the title "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters". This carpe diem is younger sister Boo Boo's wedding day mantra for Seymour, written with soap on a mirror. It is June 4th, 1942 and a hot New York summer day. Seymour Glass, the Glass family Zen guru and idol, is about to be married to his fiancé Muriel, but does not show, ostensibly because "the flight ceiling" for his plane ride from Ft. Benning, GA did not "raise" in time. Significantly, Buddy is the only Glass family member able to attend his older brother's non-wedding. "Raise High the Roof Beams, Carpenters" is Buddy's detailed recounting of that vacant afternoon six years before Seymour's suicide. It essentially reads like a mystery in that the "action" centers around the question: what's going on with Seymour? Having only read "Nine Stories" and "Franny and Zooey" we have only had snapshots and vague reminiscences of Seymour, mostly from Buddy. Even "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" is supposedly from Buddy's hand. Here, we are tantalized with a little more information, but it's never enough (even the long-winded, obsessive "Seymour, an Introduction" will only wet the appetite of the most devoted Salinger and Glass sage fans). "Raise High" has an easy-going post-war dialogue and banter akin to "Catcher" and "Franny & Zooey", making it an enjoyable read at face-value; but as with most of Salinger's stories there's more than meets the eye. In addition to the mysterious "Fat Lady" we now have the mute, delightfully grinning old man with top-hat and cigar; more ghostly presence than reality. The turgid comments of the bride-to-be's guests are classic Salinger, and we sympathize with irritated brother Buddy's tossing back some scotch as he serves Tom Collins' to them at his apartment. He sneaks away for a moment and reads Seymour's 1941-42 diary, discovering Seymour's self-description as a "paranoiac in reverse who suspects people of trying to make him happy". Even though he claims to be happy with his fiancé, he doesn't really believe that he'll make her happy, and thus an understated hesitancy to marry. Nevertheless, they do elope later that same afternoon despite the non-wedding. As for why Seymour never appears (and he never does physically appear in any story except to die in "Bananafish") the irascible and pushy Matron of Honor disdainfully relates Seymour's phone-call to Muriel the previous night explaining how he was "too happy" to be married and that the wedding needed to be postponed until he felt "steadier". In his diary Seymour writes that he felt "too keyed up to be with people", mystically adding that he was feeling as though "he was about to be born".
This brings up the prophetic story of "Teddy" (1953) which symbolically closes "Nine Stories". Here is the tale of Seymour's reincarnation, as I see it. 1942 is not only the year of Seymour's awkward marriage, it is also the year of young savant Teddy McArdle's birth. As Seymour's dies his "spiritual death", Teddy (whose facial descriptions exactly match those of Seymour as described in "an Introduction", among other uncanny resemblances) is born. At ten, in late 1952 his sage-like qualities renown, in much the same way that adolescent Seymour was a popular TV game-show whiz, Teddy predicts his own death. Through a diary (another common Salinger device for revelation) he provides two possible dates: that same day, 10/28/52 or his 16th birthday on 2/14/58. The connections with these dates are as of yet beyond me, but there are far too many coincidences to not believe that Salinger attaches significance to them. For example, the publishing dates of "Bananafish" (Seymour's death) and "Teddy" (a re-incarnated death) are exactly 5 years apart.
"Seymour, an Introduction" is somewhat of an encomium with profound insights into art, writing, and life (i.e. writing not to please but because "all your stars are out" & giving it your all - and be warned, Salinger is certainly not writing to please here!). This self-described, self-absorbed panegyric is an essential key to understanding the Glass cycle, but leaves more questions than answers. Buddy is revealed to be the author of "Bananfish", "Raise High", in addition to "Zooey" and potentially "Teddy" (there are references to "Catcher in the Rye" it would seem too). Anyhow, this would change our perception of the stories, for the implication would be that Buddy - ostensibly not the disinterested 3rd person of Salinger - has been telling us about Seymour. And even the notoriously unpublished "Hapworth 16, 1924" (available on-line, among several other uncollected, unpublished stories), which the verbose NY Times critic K. Michiko in her 1997 review judges a "sour, implausible and completely charmless story", suggests some sort of "purposeful disfigurement" of a precocious Seymour by an embittered Buddy. Michiko and other critics agree that the implication is that Buddy is jaded and re-writing his family history. Therefore, we would be reading Buddy's "scripts" for his actor siblings. There is some support for this in Salinger's use of the Kafka and Kierkegaard quotes related to this theme in Seymour's "Introduction", but there has to be more to it than that. Seymour speaks through Buddy as though he were an amanuensis for his spirit. From what I've read in "Hapworth" (the real "charmless" thing is having to read on-line!), and likewise with "Raise High" and "Seymour", there is definitely much to be reckoned with here. Only serious readers of Salinger will get it, or want to, but will be gratified I think with the level of depth here.
There is a metaphorical reference to an "outrunning of one another", when Seymour chases down a racing Buddy at the end of "Seymour". At the half way point of that story where Buddy/Salinger takes a two and a half month break from writing due to "acute hepatitis", Seymour overtakes and consumes Salinger (or is it Buddy?). This is an epiphanal moment for those who enjoy Salinger's increasingly elliptical writing and are curious about what he's aiming for with the Glass family. These two stories create more questions than answers, adding a whole new dimension to his earlier stories. The real question is whether or not there will be more revelations to come. Will Salinger, I wonder, have the audacity to produce and print Seymour's hundred some-odd haikus which Buddy so tantalizingly describes to us? Or is this all wishful thinking to hope for more from a man who hasn't published a morsel since 1965? The mystery continues, and sadly, maybe no one (including Salinger himself) cares anymore. Well J.D., shall we indeed see, more?
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: no title
Review: Please note that I am reviewing only "Seymour, an Introduction".
I don't think I'd ever read Salinger before, and this piece was a pleasant surprise. Hard to describe, is it a short novella? Fiction, a homage to Buddy Glass's brother, Seymour, who committed suicide eleven years before, written in the voice of Buddy Glass. This was first published in The New Yorker in 1959. As it is all written as an essay, with no dialogue and precious few paragraphs, I doubt it could get published today. Talkative, conversational style, as if the reader were simply sitting beside him. Of course I liked it. Difficult to believe it is fiction. Or is it? Wonderful line about writing on page 187. If you had your heart's choice, what piece of writing in all the world would you most want to read? Then sit down shamelessly and write the thing yourself.