Joanna Smith RakoffRecensioni

A memoir by Rakoff, as to her first job out of University, working in New York for a literary agent for some of the biggest literary authors of the time, including the reclusive J D Salinger.

The agency was very conservative in its approach to the conduct of its business. We are talking New York 1996 and yet it had no computer, and when it was convinced to acquire one, it did just that, it acquired one computer/screen which was not to be used except for very proscribed purposes.

Rakoff worked principally for Dorothy (you guessed it, an old school, conservative agent for personally served long standing clients, with a passion. Deals were done over long lunches; new books were offered to individual publishers (never auctioned and never ever offered to multiple publishers to scramble over).

Dorothy was the principal agent for J D Salinger, who never wanted to see let alone respond to fan letters and never accepted any invitations to anything. Hence all correspondence was directed to the agency. part of Rakoff's role was to deal with such correspondence, usually by responding with a template letter expressing regret that Salinger was unable to respond /accept the kind invitation and that the agency was under strict instructions not to forward the correspondence to Salinger.

Rakoff becomes increasingly interested in the Salinger enigma, and takes a few calls from him when her boss is unavailable.

Over the year in question, we follow Rakoff in her maturing relationship with her friends and acquaintances (work and otherwise).

It is a fascinating read as to a person starting a career in a fascinating scenario.

One does not need to have read Salinger (or indeed to have ever heard of him) to enjoy this memoir.

Very much recommended for anyone you enjoys a memoir.

Big Ship

8 April 2024

A very interesting account of the author's year working at a literary agency in New York.

I just loved this book!

What a delightful read! For those of you looking for an enjoyable, lighthearted easy-to-read memoir that doesn't involve rape, murder, incest, or terrible heartbreak, this one's a good bet. Joanna tells the story of her job as an assistant at the Agency, a literary agency in New York that is both prestigious and extremely resistant to change. The Agency happens to represent "Jerry" also known as the reclusive J.R. Salinger. Salinger gets quite loving treatment in Rakoff's hands, but the Agency and her socialist boyfriend, Don, do not. The story is a small one, and you won't be on an emotional roller coaster by any means, but it was just an intriguing look from an insider perspective at Agency life as well as the story of a young woman trying to make her way in the world for the first time. The literary angle was icing on the cake for this book lover. I have read some Salinger, but this book also really made me want to revisit Catcher in the Rye and read Nine Stories already. It was very helpful to have recently read Franny and Zooey since that book was referenced quite a bit. If you like Salinger, definitely add this to your list.

Joanna Rakoff's MY SALINGER YEAR (2014) is a memoir, something I had to keep reminding myself, because it reads like a novel, and a pretty good one at that. In it, Rakoff looks back at 1995-96, the year she spent working as a Iow-paid "assistant" to a demanding "boss" at an unnamed prestigious NYC literary agency after dropping out of grad school. An aspiring poet, she also leaves her long-time boyfriend and moves into a rundown, unheated apartment with an older, world-wise, self-styled "socialist," also an aspiring writer. Her boss's main client is, of course, the reclusive J.D. Salinger, or "Jerry," as she comes to know him via her boss (who is herself a strange character). Rakoff had never read any of Salinger's work, but finally reads all of it, over one long marathon weekend of reading. Holden and the Glass family and Salinger's New York City all come alive for her then, especially so as she reads the author's voluminous fan mail, still arriving daily. One of her jobs at the agency is reading that mail, and to respond with a form letter, which she finds hard to do. There is much here about the publishing game, "slush piles," books, agents and poor wages, as well as some glimpses of Rakoff's family background and her troubled dating life in the 1990s. As I said, it reads like fiction, or, at the very least, "creative non-fiction."

The book was actually something of an international bestseller, translated into several languages, but I only heard about it because I read Rakoff's blurb on the back of another book, Daisy Alpert Florin's debut novel, MY LAST INNOCENT YEAR, just released this week (a book I actually enjoyed even more than this one).

J.D. Salinger, even though he is gone now, and published nothing after 1965, continues to have millions of fans worldwide. I suspect that fact helped make Rakoff's book a success, though Salinger himself is mostly a peripheral character here. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Very highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER

A good read for a glimpse into the publishing industry before it went fully digital. I think the publishing services company where I worked right out of college was a little ahead of Harold Ober Assoc, but not by much. When I got there in 2000, publishing svcs was using the art dept's old Macs and we were to consider ourselves lucky to each have our own computer at all--not long before, there had been one computer for the entire dept, much like "the Agency's" one computer used exclusively for email and monitoring Salinger copyright infringement.

I was impatient with Rakoff and her terrible decision making in the beginning--moving into a terrible apartment with a terrible man is not edgy, it's just stupid. She did hook me by the end, though, although I still think her attitude toward romantic relationships and art is . . . well. The writing is great, though, and I'm looking forward to trying her novel.

Audio read by author. Makes me want to re-read Salinger.

This is a beautifully moving story of one young woman who happens to take an unplanned job at a literary agent; We get to follow her ups and downs as she learns "the agency" as well as her personal struggles and triumphs. Upon her arrival at The Agency Joanna Rakoff had never gotten swept away with J.D. Salinger in fact, she'd never read him at all which makes for an interesting and sometimes awkward time.

This is a rather simple story, which may not be everyone's cup of tea. Anyone who has ever had their "Salinger phase" or those, like myself, who never grew out of the phase and simply love his work more and more every time we read it, finding different wonders in the stories as we age. This book is also a perfect glimpse in to the sorts of quirks and the ups and downs of contributing to the literary world.

I adored this book so much more than I can say. It is certainly one of the most charming, simply loveable books I've read in quite some time. Johanna Rakoff writes from the heart with a clear narrative and a sometimes Woody Allen like flair that made me fall head over heels for her story.

This one is a rare 5 stars for me. If you've ever been a Salinger fan, or you're interested in writing or working for an agency or publisher this is the perfect book for you!

Really enjoyed this book. Engagingly written and very open about what it's like to start a first job and maintain an early relationship. Loved the parts about her difficult boss.

Fun, light and very readable memoir of a young woman working at a literary angency in the 90s - one that represented J. D. Salinger. I really liked reading about her job and about others' passion for Salinger's stories. I will have to add some more Salinger to my reading list.

Rakoff has just finished her degree in the UK, and returns to New York, where she lands a job as an assistant at The Agency, a premier literary agent. Along with the job she collects a new boyfriend who has literally ambitions himself.

She gets the position by saying that she can use a typewriter, which she can, kind of. As she finds her feet in the first few days she comes to realise that this agency has no internet access or computers of any form at all. Instead every record of submission is manual, and stored on record cards. Her boss too is very much old school, and she comes to realise that they are not always receptive to change. Most important though is Jerry. If he calls then he must be put through immediately to her boss, and not engaged in any small talk. She agrees. A little while later it dawns on her that Jerry is J D Salinger, the legendary writer and self imposed recluse. One of her task is to answer the many fan letters that they receive as he has no desire to receive or read any fan mail, but rather than use the standard letters, she answers them as she sees fit. Most are appreciative, but the odd one back fires.

As Rakoff walks amongst the literary giants, her personal life is a bit of a state. She has moved in with Don, even though she still has a boyfriend on the West coast. She is on a low wage but is having to cover the rent and food and so on. She returns home for her birthday, and her father presents her with the credit card bills and the student loans that she never knew she had, making a perilous financial situation even worse.

It is a story of some charm, as she travels around the city of New York, and starts to make headway into the book industry and discovers real love. It is nicely written too, she carries her youthful enthusiasm off with some aplomb.

J.D. Salinger would not have liked Joanna Rakoff's 2014 memoir “My Salinger Year,” but I did.

Salinger, like Harper Lee a remarkable writer driven into seclusion by the pressure of early success, was known for his strict control over his life, his privacy, his books and everything else he could control. And because his books have sold so many copies, he had lots of control. Much of that control was exercised through his New York literary agent, who so catered to him that she resisted installing computers and other modern technology in her office. Salinger preferred typewriters.

Rakoff, an aspiring poet eager for a start in New York literary circles, took a job as assistant to that agent. Soon she found herself opening Salinger's mail and sending back form letters explaining that the author did not want to read his mail, talking with him frequently on the telephone and, on one occasion, actually meeting him and shaking his hand when he showed up at the office.

In the fall of 2002, Rakoff wrote an article for Book magazine also called "My Salinger Year," which essentially boiled the book's contents down to four pages. Did it really take her more than a decade to write the complete memoir? Or is it indicative of Salinger's influence that it was necessary to wait until after his death in 2010 to get it published? And although she named the literary agency (Harold Ober Agency) in her article, she just calls it the Agency in her book. Did his influence extend even beyond his death?

Rakoff says she got tired of copying form letters (the office had no copy machine) and so began replying to the letters from Salinger's fans herself, something that would have angered Salinger if he had found out about it. But, of course, he never read his mail.

When not focusing on Salinger, Rakoff writes about her private life, about surviving in New York City on a pitiful salary, living with a leftist boyfriend who imagines himself a great writer (she knows better) and trying to make decisions about her future.

Her memoir turns from interesting to fascinating when she finally gets around to actually reading Salinger's books, something she had avoided in the past, in part because her parents liked them. She loves them, especially “Franny and Zooey” (my own favorite). Now she rereads his books every year. Her comments about Salinger's work are glowing. ("Salinger was brutal," she writes. "Brutal and funny and precise. I loved him. I loved it all.") Even so, he wouldn't have liked it.

This has been touted as a fin-de-siecle masterpiece of social depiction a la Dickens or Wharton. It's not; it's several notches below that in literary taxonomy (hint: rhymes with "quick fit"), but still reasonably engaging. Rakoff has a good feel for the lives of her privileged, over-educated, Brooklyn-dwelling characters; whether the reader is going to be able to muster sympathy for them is another question. The book is both an anthropological snapshot of a certain time and class, and a page-turner. There are worse combinations.

Felt like I was sitting on the steps of the Waldorf watching her see the ceiling for the first time and wanting to be friends.

Dictaphones and typewriters in 1996? After graduate school, Joanna takes a job as an assistant to the literary agent who represents J.D. Salinger. The office appears stuck in the 1950s, despite the introduction of computers and email to the rest of the world. Joanna's duties include typing out a generic form letter to Salinger's fans, since Salinger will not even accept fan mail. She soon finds herself compelled to write back herself, even ditching the generic form letter for something more personal. This is a lovely memoir about a writer discovering her identity, with a little help from J.D. Salinger.

Kathleen K. / Marathon County Public Library
Find this book in our library catalog.

Mildly amusing, mildly entertaining, mildly well written.

(25 December 2015 – from Bridget)

A surprise gift that I didn’t know I wanted, this turned out to be a very interesting read. It’s a memoir of a year spent working at the agency that represented J.D. Salinger. Set in 1996, the details of clothes and office life are fascinating (I’ve just realised that I must be the same age as the author and was doing the same kind of temp office work while working out what to do with my life (and saving up to go to library school) at the same time!), even without the interest of it being set in a literary agency. Not quite in the computer age, they use typewriters for everything (I remember having to type invoices with carbon paper at this time!) and Joanna has trouble breaking out of secretarial mode.

A coming of age story more than anything, and you can feel for the protagonists, but it might make more sense reading it if you were their age – much like “Catcher in the Rye”, of course. The parts where she raves about Salinger’s work when she finally gets round to reading it felt a bit unnecessary, and the workarounds to maintain the anonymity of the agency and her boss (odd, as surely a quick Google would find this out) are a bit clunky, but it was nicely written and edited and I appreciated the epilogue bringing us up to date.

" the beauty of this memoir, it is so intensely relatable."
read more: http://likeiamfeasting.blogspot.gr/2016/05/my-salinger-year-joanna-rakoff.html½

Very enjoyable read, particularly for anyone interested in literature and the publishing world. The book is well-paced until the very last chapter, where the loose ends are tied up too quickly. By that point, I was interested in her unnamed "college boyfriend" and the narrative became confusing when she said she'd married someone else and had children. Why was that mentioned in one sentence? It should have either been more thoroughly explained or left unmentioned. Fortunately, that is a small complaint and does not stop me from recommending the book.

Author's recounting of her post-graduate year at a NYC literary agency (aka publisher) in New York city. She's young and idealistic and the "scales fall from her eyes" as she realizes the unique poverty of being under-employed in an expensive city, a less-than-fulfilling relationship, and the loneliness of watching her college chums marry off, move away, and/or simply grow up (and not party). Her boss is a kinder, gentler version of the villainness of The Devil Wears Prada but the parallels are still there: self-absorbed, oblivious to others, resistant to change. The author's relationship with her parents is especially troubling to this reader (at her 23rd birthday, she is presented with bills for credit card accounts they opened and encouraged her to use: oh vey!) For Salinger devotees (not this reader) there is much to love. We hear "Jerry" screaming on the phone (JD was hard of hearing), see him in age-enduced confusion, and experience his moments of genuine kindness. In one of the brighter sides to the story, Rakoff takes it upon herself to answer letters written to Salinger... with unexpected result!. The book has a happy, almost pat, ending: Rakoff''s poem/s get published, she meets JD Salinger, she successfully edits a book, and dumps her crummy boyfriend, inherits a great apartment... It let this reader unsettled. What about the rest of us? The majority who just kinda get by? And one wonders what her boyfriend's perspective would be? (She paints him in a pretty harsh light). Recommended for fans of all things literary, NYC, and, of course, Salinger.½

An easy, enjoyable read with a nice NYC vibe. A good companion piece to read with Salinger stories and it provides an interesting window into J.D.S.'s literary agency back in the days of dictaphones and typewriters.

A remarkable memoir of a year almost twenty years prior, Rakoff details the twelve months she spent working as a "Literary Assistant" (read, "Secretary") for "The Agency"- her nom de plume for the highly regarded literary agency representing the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Judy Blume, and of course, J.D. Salinger. Rakoff has yet to read any of Salinger's work as she responds via typewritten form letter to hundreds of Holden Caufield-esque fan letters. She begins to realize that she might have missed something in her youth and spends a lonely weekend reading all of his books. Falling in love with Salinger's characters (as much as the loving fans she has been unmindfully writing to), Rackoff looks at her own life through Jerry's lens and finds it lacking. A terrific companion book for any of Salinger's writing, but especially "The Catcher in the Rye", Rackoff identifies its intrinsic quality and understands why so many around the world relate to and love his endearing yet fallible characters.½

A wonderful memoir, funny, honest, revealing, completely absorbing, and very New York.

An engaging and well-told real-life tale of a year in one of New York's big literary agencies... At times the pacing is off (there's a lovely build of tension that never resolves and is very frustrating!) but the writing is warm and funny and humane. A lovely insight into the old-fashioned Agency world...