"Franny and Zooey" from Kelli

Most people know J.D. Salinger for his novel "The Catcher in the Rye" (which all of us have already read, so you won't be seeing a post about it). Lesser known, but still on the top 100 novels list, is another short read - "Franny and Zooey".

The novel opens with an interaction between Franny, a young college girl, and her beau Lane. We witness a reunion between the two for about 40 pages before Franny falls out and the section ends. We then open up on the Glass' house, where we meet Zooey - Franny's slightly older brother. The rest of the novel is basically the siblings dealing with still being sad about their eldest brother, Seymour, committing suicide and Franny being disgusted with the egos of everyone around her and trying to start saying the Jesus Prayer all the time.

The best part of the book is the first 40 pages. Afterward it goes in a strange spiral where everyone is snippy and then sad and they talk about Jesus, but you're not really sure if it's really about their feelings toward Jesus, or the world, or if it's just about two siblings coming together after some tough times in the family.

Either way, Salinger still has an ear for colloquial language and it was a fairly quick and enjoyable read. If you have to choose, though, take "The Catcher".