Franny and Zooey and Vonnegut

Cover of Cat’s Cradle: A Novel

Last year, something wonderful happened to me: I fell in love. No, it wasn’t with a fellow student, and no, we have never actually spoken, but when I first picked up Slaughterhouse Five, I knew the love I felt for Kurt Vonnegut would never diminish.

So imagine my joy when my friend leant me Cat’s Cradle, and I was again immersed in a world of pathos, nihilism, imagination, and humor. I absolutely loved it! With its completely original and unclassifiable story line, ridiculously imaginative characters, and valuable message, Cat’s Cradle is a gorgeous, funny, sad, weird, wonderful classic.

I also just finished Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger and I (unexpectedly) loved it as well. I saw unexpectedly because I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with The Catcher in the Rye. (First I hated it, then I liked it, then I loved it, then I was annoyed by it, then I was tired of it, and now I like to think we’ve come to a sort of truce.) But to me, Franny and Zooey was like Catcher‘s slightly older, slightly more mature, but still angsty sibling. It was easy for me to relate to Franny’s academic discontent, her feelings of directionlessness and malaise, her devotion to an obscure novel. These are common late-adolescence/early-adulthood themes, and Salinger presented them beautifully and respectfully.

More later!

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