Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters; Seymour - an Introduction

A haunting portrait of family tragedy from the acclaimed author of The Catcher in the Rye '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. 'The Glasses are one of the liveliest, funniest, most fully-realized families in all fiction' The New York Times

A haunting portrait of family tragedy from the acclaimed author of The Catcher in the Rye '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. 'The Glasses are one of the liveliest, funniest, most fully-realized families in all fiction' The New York Times

A haunting and deeply personal portrait of family tragedy from the much-loved author of The Catcher in the Rye Buddy Glass is the second-eldest son in the eccentric and enchanting Glass family. He is on leave from the army during World War II, attending the wedding of his eldest brother, Seymour. But the wedding is not a happy one: it is overcast by a sense of strange suspense. Perhaps everyone is aware, on some level, of what is to come. And in the years after the tragedy, Buddy is haunted by memories of Seymour, turning over in his mind everything that came to pass with his deeply complex and unhappy older brother. With painful tenderness and great subtlety, Salinger unfolds a story of family tragedy from the point of view of a character - Buddy - who has long been suspected to be a portrait of the author himself.

A haunting and deeply personal portrait of family tragedy from the much-loved author of The Catcher in the Rye Buddy Glass is the second-eldest son in the eccentric and enchanting Glass family. He is on leave from the army during World War II, attending the wedding of his eldest brother, Seymour. But the wedding is not a happy one: it is overcast by a sense of strange suspense. Perhaps everyone is aware, on some level, of what is to come. And in the years after the tragedy, Buddy is haunted by memories of Seymour, turning over in his mind everything that came to pass with his deeply complex and unhappy older brother. With painful tenderness and great subtlety, Salinger unfolds a story of family tragedy from the point of view of a character - Buddy - who has long been suspected to be a portrait of the author himself.