Howard Zinn, 1922-2010; JD Salinger, 1919-2010

Admittedly, I’ve never read Howard Zinn, but his major work is on my list of books to buy (with cash from an independently owned bookstore).

JD Salinger, however, is required reading, and rightfully so. I’ve read Catcher in the Rye twice — once in high school and once in college — and have often thought about suspending the battle I’m waging against my new books queue and taking my personal hardcopy off the shelf and indulging in it a third time. Although it never made much of an impression on me, it is a quintessential coming-of-age story; Holden Caulfield is the personification of teen angst, embodying the agonies of adolescence and the pains of ascending (more likely descending) to adulthood that we all feel. It’s one of those rare books that everyone can relate to, which is one reason why Salinger, despite the fact he published little of what he wrote, is a literary icon.

Salinger was famous for his reclusiveness, and his physical death yesterday comes decades after he chose to fade from the public eye. Personally, as a Quiet Man, I deeply admire his commitment to shun the spot light. That’s keeping it real.