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Article: In Search of J.D. Salinger.
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- August 5, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1988 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IN SEARCH OF IAN HAMILTON
In Search of J. D. Salinger If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. . . . I'm not going to tell you my whole goddam autobiography or anything.
Introducing himself as the narrator of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, J. D. Salinger's now-famous adolescent, commits a very adult act of irony: he simultaneously refuses to tell his life story, and ...