You cannot fault writers for determination. After returning to New York City following his service in WWII, J.D. Salinger found his way into a “poker group” of writers. You might think he did this to create connections and find camaraderie with his fellow scribes. However, after cleaning them out of their minuscule earnings (on average, they might be lucky to make a penny per word,) he would share a beer and talk about the writers of the day. In the late Forties, the seeds of The Lost Generation were finally producing talent like Hemingway, Steinbeck, Dorothy Parker, and William Faulkner. Salinger thought these were “second-rate,” and there was a large, long gulf between the true American writers: Herman Melville and J.D. Salinger.
We want to talk about Salinger in literary terms. The events of his life (a/k/a the journey from stardom into hermitage) and its cultural crossroads with popular culture are too often the central focus of his complex literary and personal life. There were no real signs that Salinger (then known as “Sonny”) was an unhappy child. His life in New York City was fairly normal. Sonny even possessed a gift for hyperbole. Shipped off to the Pencey Prep-like Valley Forge military school, Sonny became “Jerry.” Jerry did fit in/didn’t fit in just like the titular Holden Caulfield from “The Catcher In The Rye.” He also ran away.
Attending a nearby college, Jerry arrived with a bang before the pressure of conformity (likely) proved to be too much. While he was making friends who would become the characters we all still adore, Salinger was becoming a writer. World War II created a likely period of cognitive dissonance in Salinger. It was a surprise when he wrote the former commanding officer at Valley Forge with great patriotic fervor hoping to obtain a recommendation that could allow him to enter the Armed Forces as an officer. His previous reputation as “Jerry” could have generated a letter of protest or even refusal.
Young, afraid, and sworn to lifelong secrecy, Salinger saw battle at Utah Beach on D-Day (21000 troops with just 197 lost,) The Battle of The Bulge (8600 killed), and the horrific Battle of Hürtgen Forest (33,000 killed or wounded.) The escalating death around him took its toll. There is a “lost period” where Salinger stays even after the war possibly because he married a doctor or possibly because he “cracked up.”
Then almost magically Salinger returns to New York to resume his writing. Helped by friend Whit Burnett, Salinger’s first book of short stories “The Young Folks” was on its way to publication in 1946. However, even with a 1000-dollar advance - it was rejected. Salinger was ready with 10 previously written short stories and 10 new ones. Disenchanted with Burnett and his connection at Lippincott Press, he submitted one to the New Yorker in 1947. Previously rejected for three years of entries of his prose and poetry, the New Yorker would publish “A Perfect Day For Bananafish” on January 31, 1948.
"Bananafish" is a short story without a lot of action that uses much of its dialogue to mask feelings and for the writer to express his love of writing as a possible release from the aforementioned grief and anxiety. When it opens, we are transported into a world that we no longer know as "common." Telephone lines can be so jammed up - incoming calls simply do not come and making a call could be an hours-long wait. Muriel is not content waiting, but easily managing via the consumerism of this "new world." When her mother finally gets through, she is just as worried as any parent who lost communication with a child would be. The mother's lack of control shows in her conversation, the daughter is distracted and has her mind on other things. Over the whole tale so far, Salinger has eloquently illustrated the breaking of those precious apron strings between a mother and her daughter.
There is a larger story unfolding but you would not know it. Mother asks Muriel "Did he try any of that funny business with the trees?" Muriel says everything she can to assuage her fears in response - including slightly changing the subject. To use poker parlance, it is a "tell" that you may not see until your third or fourth pass through the short story. In the beginning, Salinger wants us to be taken with Muriel with her comb and brush, nail polish, and magazine. So when she diverts with "Did Daddy get the car fixed, incidentally?," we may not yet connect the source of Mother's worry is not Muriel, but her driver.
Their conversation continues, more clipped now. The kind of remarks whose implication creates doubt and interest.
"Did he keep calling you that awful - "
"No. He has something new now."
The moniker in question is "Miss Spiritual Tramp of 1948." Muriel "giggles" while delivering it. Mother, already insensed, is outraged. Even across complicated lines of communication that have delayed this call, Salinger now unfolds the mystery of cognitive dissonance. It turns out that driver years ago gave Muriel a book of poetry saying "they were written by the greatest poet of the century." Turns out, they were written in German with no translation. Now who is confused? Mother is distressed. Muriel has received a token of love - but one that cannot be understood or comprehended.
The driver in question is Seymour Glass, possibly modeled after Salinger himself. He is married to Muriel and after returning from the War has been under some level of psychiatric care. Salinger is characterizing Glass through this conversation and leaking out the details of his mental trauma in pieces. Why the need to slowly reveal these details? Because he wants us to know the problems in Glass' mind are far greater than what Muriel and her mother see. Again the mother is worried, but not necessarily for Seymour - more for Muriel. In addition, many of her responses in this coded phone conversation carry the implication that their union may not be in favor anymore. Think about the early portion of their conversation. They speak to each other as if they are speaking "around" a larger subject that both of them know will poke its head up eventually.
The genius of this chunk of "Bananafish" is that we have learned nearly everything we need to know without any obvious leads and mostly through subtext and what is missing from the conversation. That facet that no one is talking about is shell shock and/or PTSD. Salinger is telling us exactly what is wrong and characterizing it as a malady that no one will speak about. We have not seen or heard from Seymour Glass (the name itself implies "transparency" to many,) but we know him. Like Sartre or Camus, Seymour is troubled and complex. His actions leave those who most care for him, bewildered and confused. His reactions to the one person he truly loves, are dipped in sarcasm and self-loathing. Furthermore, Muriel can only latch on to his expressed feelings as a means to be with him. Knowing that deep into the story, it is now harder to accept her "openness" to the world in the beginning as a positive trait. In fact, you wonder if her blank facade is not just a suppression of deeper worry about the chasm inside of her husband.
Muriel and her vanity, her mother and her overcaring are a match for each other. Muriel's "acceptance" of Seymour's behavior yet not being able to understand it - much less explain it.
In so few words and actions, with relatively no plot, Salinger creates a character and illuminates what could be his deepest inner fears to a world that just wants a story.
—
Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
New Music This Week
The Band CAMINO - The Dark [PINK LP/CD](Elektra)
After leaving Hattiesburg fans dancing on the lawn at Lake Terrace last year, the shiny danceable Pop of the band CAMINO returns with their second album of uptempo yet emotionally wrought Pop. Their choruses are custom-built for shouting along (“I Told You So,”) and their crunchy riffs-meet-Electronic glimmer could land them a Harry Styles-ian single (“What Am I Missing?)
THE HIVES - The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons [LP/CD](Disques Hives SWE)
Without Randy Fitzsimmons, their longtime mysterious Svengali (and the retirement of Dr. Matt Destruction), Swedish Punk masters The Hives are back with a blistering blast of what has been missing. Weirdly, they choose not to sound too much like punchy classics like “Walk Idiot Walk” or the immortal “Hate To Say I Told You So.” Pelle Almqvist still howls but The Hives have moved on to Seventies growling Rock (think The Dictators) with a Nineties twist (the brilliantly titled “Bogus Operandi.”)
UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS - Slaughter on First Avenue [LP/CD](Rise Above)
On tour in 2019 for the underrated “Wasteland, “ Kevin Starrs’ normally produced sinister Seventies metallic Rock sounds raw and biting from this live show at First Avenue in Minneapolis. The recording is as claustrophobic as their album devotes a lot of low end to the powerful rhythm section of Jus Smith and Jon Rice. “Dead Eyes of London” punches away like classic Sisters of Mercy’s dark Glam. The propulsive album standout “Shockwave City” has even more shape live and is played like an epic. If anything, Uncle Acid's live sound like they know their albums so well that the little additions and extras are where they push the hardest. It is a grinding mix. “Pusher Man” normally sounds sleek and bullet-like. The “Slaughter” version really lets the guitars buzz and yowl over a more majestic pace.
