Generally I like Jerome Charyn's writing, but I just couldn't into this book on the author J.D. Salinger. I prefer Charyn's autobiographical books ( )

Written in novel form, this fascinating look at the formative years of reclusive author J.D. Salinger traces the events just prior to and during World War II that shaped his worldview and later, his fiction. Like so many from his generation, he served in a war that held atrocities humanity had scarcely imagined, and as a member of the Counterintelligence Corp, Salinger was witness to more than most. It was inevitable that these experiences changed him as both a person and as a writer. Charyn handles Salinger's story with grace and an eye for detail, and I really felt as if I gained a greater insight into one of the great minds of his generation. That he was scarred by what he witnessed and suffered from PTSD now seems beyond doubt. That he and those around him suffered is a tragedy, but Charyn did the job of telling that story justice. ( )

This is a very creative approach to examining the development and eventual artistry of J.D. Salinger. The book is a historical fiction work on Salinger's life in the U.S. military during WWII and the possible effects of that time period on his own eventual publications. The book seems well researched and does a very good job with character development, introspection, and pacing. The story by itself is an interesting read with a fascinating plot but challenges the reader further by giving them food for thought at what might lay behind the mind of the reclusive Salinger when he began his own writing career. ( )

J.D. "Sonny" Salinger as a CIC (counter intelligence) sergeant saw action in Europe in WWII. Still obsessed with Oona O'Neill Chaplin, he cleaned up the mess at Slapton Sands, landed in the second wave at Utah Beach, Normandy on D-Day, arrived in Paris for the liberation and encountered Hemingway at the Ritz, suffered through the Hurtgen Forest to the Ardennes Battle of the Bulge, witnessed the newly-liberated survivors of Kaufering Lager IV (an outlier of Dachau), committed himself to Krankenhaus 31, reenlisted for six additional months at Nurenberg. Overkill! If this were created by a novelist from whole cloth, an editor would say, "Too much!" but this is what Salinger did.
Jerome Charyn is the novelist here though, and he chronicles each step on this incredible journey and subtly draws us into Salinger's dissolution.
(More to follow. It's too late at this point, and I can't think.) ( )

Summary: A fictional account of J.D. Salinger’s early adult life, centered around his wartime service with the CIC including the landing at Utah Beach, fighting in Normandy’s Hedgerows, the interrogation of German captives, the harrowing fighting of Huertgen Forest during the Battle of the Bulge, and the discovery of a Nazi death camp.

J. D. Salinger was one of the more enigmatic and reclusive authors in the twentieth century. Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey are among the most significant novels of the twentieth century and arguably influential on the style of other more recent works. In this work of fiction, that closely follows Salinger’s biography Jerome Charyn explores the impact of World War Two on the trajectory of Salinger’s life between opening and closing scenes in New York.

The work opens with Salinger invited by the debutante Oona O’Neill to join her as Walter Winchell held court at Table 50. At this time he’s completed prep school, has had a few stories published while Oona is serving as eye candy as Winchell hobnobs with the likes of Hemingway. He loves Oona but the war interrupts their relationship. After a tantalizing but unfulfilled last night, she goes to Hollywood while he is drafted and sent to England with the Counter Intelligence Corp while training as a rifleman.

He carries a satchel with a manuscript whose main character is Holden Caulfield and he writes when he can on an old army issue Corona. That is, until the horrors of war interrupt. He witnesses a horrible training accident at Slapton Sands and has to help with the coverup, burying the bodies. He is in the second wave to hit Utah Beach, shepherding his captain, who is shell-shocked to safety. He joins the fighting in the hedgerows of Normandy. He survives the horror of Huertgen Forest in the Battle of the Bulge. He stumbles on a Nazi death camp, unable to get rid of the smell of burning and rotting bodies, and the horror of the walking dead, the few survivors. All of this actually happened to Salinger.

Charyn portrays a Salinger psychologically damaged, needing to check into a psychiatric institute, where he meets and later marries Sylvie, another brief and failed relationship. He feels so damaged, he helps with de-Nazification rather than going home as soon as possible. He’s not lost his humanity, tenderly rescuing and paying for the care of Alicja, a young girl assaulted in the camp, left tongue-less. When he does return, he has episodes of “zoning out” and only with the care of family, especially his sister Dottie does he get to the place where he can write in an apartment on Sleepy Hollow Lane.

Was Salinger a victim of PTSD? That is what Charyn and others who have written of Salinger would have us believe, His daughter Margaret would contend otherwise. But the novel offers a compelling portrayal of a psychologically scarred Salinger, leaving us wonder how things would have been different apart from the war.

Charyn frames the work with two unfulfilled relationships, with Oona and Sylvie. That maps with much of Salinger’s life. His second marriage ended in divorce after eleven years. He had at least two more brief relationships before marrying for the third time in 1988, a marriage that lasted until he passed in 2010.

Finally, we are left wondering what will happen to Holden Caulfield. Will the manuscript in the satchel see the light of day? We know the answer to that, but the end of the novel leaves us wondering what else that Salinger wrote has yet to see daylight. His last published work was in 1965 but he continued writing throughout his life. We’re left wondering whether we’ve seen Salinger’s best.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher via LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers Program. The opinions I have expressed are my own. ( )