a book
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction
J. D. Salinger · 2001 · 224 pages
The last book-length work of fiction by J. D. Salinger published in his lifetime collects two novellas about "one of the liveliest, funniest, most fully realized families in all fiction" (New York Times).
These two novellas, set seventeen years apart, are both concerned with Seymour Glass--the eldest son of J. D. Salinger's fictional Glass family--as recalled by his closest brother, Buddy.
"He was a great many things to a great many people while he lived, and virtually all things to his brothers and sisters in our somewhat outsized family. Surely he was all real things to us: our blue-striped unicorn, our double-lensed burning glass, our consultant genius, our portable conscience, our supercargo, and our one full poet..."
These two novellas, set seventeen years apart, are both concerned with Seymour Glass--the eldest son of J. D. Salinger's fictional Glass family--as recalled by his closest brother, Buddy.
"He was a great many things to a great many people while he lived, and virtually all things to his brothers and sisters in our somewhat outsized family. Surely he was all real things to us: our blue-striped unicorn, our double-lensed burning glass, our consultant genius, our portable conscience, our supercargo, and our one full poet..."
recommended by 2 people
sourced from public statements
Jennifer Lawrence
“I don't think there's ever been anything like these characters in American literature.”↗
Emily St John Mandel
“I like The Catcher in the Rye well enough, but to my mind, Salinger’s masterworks were the stories he wrote about the Glass family. Their humanity grabs hold of me. Salinger took such care with his characters and wrote with such warmth. When I’m working on developing characters, I try to live up to his example.”↗