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Could it also be that _Zooey_ was simply read at a different time in your life? I first read _Catcher_ when I was the disgruntled youth that you expect to read
by bmelton 13y ago
Could it also be that _Zooey_ was simply read at a different time in your life? I first read _Catcher_ when I was the disgruntled youth that you expect to read it, and found it brilliant. I've re-read it a couple times since then and now find it far less so.
I acknowledge that the writing is still really great, but I'm just not able to connect to it the same way I do other books that I read from the same era.
- gruseom 13y agoNo, I only read Catcher a couple weeks ago. It's on an altogether other level than F&Z, even though it's no longer shockingly original like it must have been in 1951. I found it brilliant stylistically; only a voice, but what a voice. The emotional impact was different for me than it would have been when I was that age, but I remember very well how all that feels, so I was cheering on behalf of my younger self. But what are the books that you do still find brilliant? :)
- bmelton 13y ago> But what are the books that you do still find brilliant? With every Vonnegut novel I re-read, I discover something new, more insightful, more brilliant and more compelling than I was able to grasp the last time I read it. This is true for just about every Vonnegut book I've bothered to re-read. The same holds true for Mark Twain (so far). I recently re-read Tom Sawyer, which I only re-read after realizing that I couldn't really remember anything from my first reading of it. Phenomenal. There are more, I'm sure, but I'd have to give it thought. The only non-print thing I can think of that is as compelling is "Primer", which is a must-watch movie, but I don't know why I'm mentioning it here, except to remark that it takes more than a single viewing to digest the entire film.