Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction by J. D. Salinger

A quirky but fascinating taleby Anonymous

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July 18, 2009: To those who may not be aware, J.D. Salinger's Raise High the Roof Beam

Carpenters and Seymour:an Introduction is the last of three books about

the lives of the fictional Glass family living in New York City at the

beginning of the 20th century. The other two books in the series are Nine Stories, and Franny and Zooey. The Nine Stories introduces the mem-bers of this large extended family, Franny and Zooey tells the lives of

the Glass family's two youngest children and the Raise High (the book in question) tells of the older brother Seymour's planned wedding,

his jilting of his bride and later elopement - the story is told in first-person narrative by his younger brother Buddy as is Seymour, an Introduction.

The book is an absorbing and often touching chronicle of the lives of all the characters as they cope with their lives in ways both sucess- fully and often not, but you will not be bored. Some may be put off by

the frequent salty language but even so it does not compare to what you

hear in the media nowadays - in any case, this was Salinger's style and

you do go with the flow as you continue reading.

As alluded to above, this is the third book of a series, so for the nar-

rative to make perfect chronological sense, you should start with Nine

Stories, then Franny and Zooey and conclude with Raise High, etc. One

can, I suppose read one and not the others, but a lot would be lost if you did so and really, the tale of this lovably eccentric famlly would simply not make sense. Do yourselves a favor - get all three (especially

at these prices) and enjoy.

P.S. I have left out a lot of details so as not to give anything away -

why spoil the fun?

Perfectionby Anonymous

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March 24, 2007: I, too, read Raise High before Catcher...and even after reading the latter, I still prefer the former. I might even go as far as to say that it's one of my favorite works of literature ever. It gripped me from the start, and though some may see it to be superficial, I did not read it that way. It's incredibly well-written, and there are just little phrases within that have stayed with me. Like the descriptions of Franny's flying with the dust on her fingertips, or some of the passages from Seymour's journal, or even the utterly perfect description of a lazy summer's day in uptown Manhattan. It's severely underrated.