Slate has an article on J.D. Salingers latest lawsuit asking for the "recall and destruction" of a novel, 60 Years Later: Coming through the Rye that describes the fortunes of a "Mr. C," who apparently is meant to be taken as Holden Caulfield at the age of 76. Salinger regards this as an "unauthorized sequel" to Catcher in the Rye.Two things about Ron Rosenbaums piece. First, the shock of learning that Salinger is now 90 years old. Second, the question of what Salingers been doing for the forty-five years since he last published anything, and the question of what happens to what he may have written upon his death, or indeed whether Salinger might himself destroy it all.A man a couple of years ahead of me in the seminary was so enthralled by Catcher in the Rye that he had made a vow to himself to re-read it every year. Its now well overforty years since I read it, and I wonder how it holds up. Is it still assigned in U.S. high schools? I wonder what young people today make of it. Does it have to come accompanied by explanatory notes that explain contemporaneous events and material culture, the sort of thing that is so helpful when reading, say, Alexander Pope?
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