Franny and Zooey (1961) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Write a summary of the plot or a synopsis of this book.

Characters edit see section history

• Franny Glass: Franny is the youngest sister in the family.
• Zachary Martin 'Zooey' Glass: The youngest Glass son. Attractive, brilliant, but a little misanthropic.
• Bessie Glass: Irish mother to the Glass children.
• Beatrice 'Boo Boo' Glass Tannenbaum: Married daughter of the Glass family.
• Seymour Glass: Oldest of the Glass children. He is dead having committed suicide while on vacation in Florida with his wife.
• Buddy Glass: Second-eldest child. He is a writer in residence at at a women's junior college in upstate New York.
• Walt Glass: Waker's dead twin who died in a freakish explosion while in the Army in occupied Japan.
• Waker Glass: Roman Catholic monk.
• Lane Coutell: Franny's boyfriend.

Quotes edit see section history

• “I mean do you have to be a goddam bohemian type, or dead, for Chrissake, to be a real poet? What do you want - some bastard with wavy hair?”

  Lane Coutell

• “I'm not afraid to compete. It's just the opposite...I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody. I'm sick of myself and everyone else who wants to makes some kind of splash.”

  Franny

• “Mine, I think, is that I know the difference between a mystical story and a love story. I say that my current offering isn't a mystical story, or a religiously mystifying story, at all. I say it's a compound, or multiple, love story, pure and complicated.”

  Zooey Glass

• “He has no enthusiasm whatever for his subject. Ego, yes. Enthusiasm, no. Which would be alright—I mean it wouldn't be anything exactly strange—but he keeps dropping idiotic hints that he's a Realized Man himself and we should be pretty happy kids to have him in this country.”

  Franny

• “He's so stupid it breaks your heart. He's like everybody else in television. And Hollywood. And Broadway. He thinks everything sentimental is tender, everything brutal is a slice of realism, and everything that runs into physical violence is a legitimate climax to something that isn't even—”

  Zooey

• “The funny part is," he said, "I like Hess. Or at least I like him when he's not shoving his artistic poverty down my throat.”

  Zooey

• “As a matter of simple logic, there's no difference at all, that I can see, between the man who's greedy for material treasure—or even intellectual treasure—and the man who's greedy for spiritual treasure. As you say, treasure's treasure, God damn it, and it seems to me that ninety per cent of all the world-hating saints in history were just as acquisitive and unattractive, basically, as the rest of us.”

  Zooey

• “These other people you've been ranting about are something else again. This Professor Tupper. And those other two goons you were telling me about last night——Manlius, and the other one. I've had them by the dozens, and so has everybody else, and I agree they're not harmless. They're lethal as hell, as a matter of fact. God almighty. They make everything they touch turn absolutely academic and useless. Or—worse—cultish. To my mind, they're mostly to blame for the mob of ignorant oafs with diplomas that are turned loose on the country every June.”

  Zooey

• “What happened was, I got the idea in my head - and I could not get it out - that college was just one more dopey, inane place in the world dedicated to piling up treasure on earth and everything. I mean treasure is treasure, for heaven's sake. What's the difference whether the treasure is money, or property, or even culture, or even just plain knowledge? It all seemed like exactly the same thing to me, if you take off the wrapping - and it still does! Sometimes I think that knowledge - when it's knowledge for knowledge's sake, anyway - is the worst of all.”

  Franny Glass

• “'God damn it,' he said 'there are nice things in the world—and I mean nice things. We're all such morons to get so sidetracked. Always, always, always referring every goddamn thing that happens right back to our lousy little egos.'”

  Zooey Glass

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Upper East Side
• Manhattan
• New York City
• New England

First Sentence edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Zen Buddhism: Salinger's interest in eastern religious philosophy is evident throughout the book.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. J. D. Salinger (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PZ4.S165 Fr3 PS3537.A426
• Dewey: 823.91

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Coming of age tale

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( S ) › Salinger, J.D.
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › United States › 20th Century
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Short Stories › United States

More Books Like This edit see section history