Dream Catcher: A Memoir

"Dream Catcher" gets an A+. Some other reviews have "dissed" Margaret Salinger, but she provides some fascinating insights into her father's books, particularly his conflicts over being Jewish. And her description of life at a "progressive" boarding school is truly harrowing. Worth the read, for those who aren't threatened by a fuller understanding of Salinger's foibles. His fiction still stands the test, but you'll read it in a different light.

It is perhaps inevitable in a culture so drunkenly obsessed with celebrity worship that we are drawn to poignant and outrageously confessional memoirs like this one by the daughter of fabled author and major league recluse J.D. Salinger. Still, this particular work is a masterfully written, absorbing and provocative look at the ways in which very famous people like Salinger prove to be all too frail and human themselves. But then again, as poet Leonard Cohen once said about Adolph Eichmann, what did we expect? Talons? Green saliva? Madness? Perhaps the latter is the closest approximation we can hope for in attempting to understand how horrific life within the surreal world of the Salingers could be for a soul as tender, malleable, and fragile as Peggy Salinger appears to be.This is a terrific book, one full of privileged and intimate glimpses into the magical albeit often terrifying environment she grew up within. Yet although one comes away from reading this book with a better appreciation for the fact that one may find horror and despair almost anywhere in life, regardless of one's position or place, that one should never assume anything about the quality of lives of the rich and famous. It is also an object lesson in the dangers of celebrity worship. Having said all this, I must also mention that I was a bit offended by the presumptions evident in several of the other reviews for the book, and especially the negative assumptions attendant to author J. D. Salinger's character, behavior and reputation. We are well advised to remember that what we have here is one daughter's subjective recollections of what life with Dad was like, which, however credible and accurate, can hardly be accepted as the whole truth of the matter on either the man himself or any of his qualities.It is certainly instructive to recognize the degree to which we seem to be so singularly judgmental regarding our opinions of such reclusive and legendary luminaries and artists as Salinger, Thomas Pynchon, and even poor feckless Cat Stevens, whose own religious prejudices seem to belie the humanistic nature of his dreamy philosophical ruminations in his folk art. Salinger, true to his public persona, at least, remains aloof and remote, silent and respectfully wordless in the face of all these revelations and accusations. Read the book, revel in the inherited power to express that Peggy seems to have gathered well enough to write so powerfully, eloquently, and emotionally in service to her memoirs. But let's remember that Salinger's art is not in any way touched, blemished, or altered by these revelations. His literary work stands, apart from the man and his life, as a lasting tribute to the power of individual humans to reach far beyond themselves, their personal pettiness, and their flawed human qualities to make a powerful, enduring work of art

This is unlike any "memoir" I've ever read. Margaret Salinger has included so much information here, historical, personal, and literary, it may be more than the average "kiss and tell" reader can fathom. The serious reader won't be disappointed. Margaret gives a bittersweet, yet balanced account of her childhood. Her childhood accounts show a real memory for the details, sounds, smells, and especially the visual beauty of life in the woods. She frames her father's development as a writer and links his work to events in his life. She has researched and explained her father's discomfort with his Jewish heritage .She frames it in the context of America anti-Semitism in the first half of this century. She tells of his restless search for transcendence from the pain of life with a series of fads. He eventually settles on a hodge-podge of Zen and Christian Science. All of life is fiction. (Except his needs.) Given the lengths to which her father's more unbalanced admirer's will go, she very wisely avoids discussing her current partner and lifestyle. It's clear she has discovered the happiness of the small things in life and is the kind of chaplain I would like to have. She's self-effacing and a real straight shooter. This honesty probably has cost her, but after her illnesses, her emotional needs, and finally, she herself became just another "illusion," she had lost her father long ago.

This is unlike any "memoir" I've ever read. Margaret Salinger has included so much information here, historical, personal, and literary, it may be more than the average "kiss and tell" reader can fathom. The serious reader won't be disappointed. Margaret gives a bittersweet, yet balanced account of her childhood. Her childhood accounts show a real memory for the details, sounds, smells, and especially the visual beauty of life in the woods. She frames her father's development as a writer and links his work to events in his life. She has researched and explained her father's discomfort with his Jewish heritage .She frames it in the context of America anti-Semitism in the first half of this century. She tells of his restless search for transcendence from the pain of life with a series of fads. He eventually settles on a hodge-podge of Zen and Christian Science. All of life is fiction. (Except his needs!) Given the lengths to which her father's more unbalanced admirer's will go, she very wisely avoids discussing her current partner and lifestyle. It's clear she has discovered the happiness of the small things in life and is the kind of chaplain I would like to have. She's self-effacing and a real straight shooter. This honesty probably has cost her, but after her illnesses, her emotional needs, and finally, she herself became just another "illusion," she had lost her father long ago.

This memoir is long, rich, scrupulously organized and presented, and an obvious labor of love and (utterly sane) obsession. J.D. Salinger is exposed in this book, not unkindly or recklessly, but exposed nonetheless. Dad will not be pleased if he reads it. (And most likely, he won't. You know why - after reading this book.)Peggy Salinger is an able academic, a smart and thoughtful person, and a perceptive daughter. In addition, she wants to better the world, and has spent many years attempting to overcome a sort of misanthropy (disguised as intellectual snobbism, perhaps) that her dad willed her. She knows her father's published works by heart, and then some. She has a sharp memory for detail and language,remembers an astounding number of childhood events, sounds, and smells - and puts that recall to good use in this book. In addition, she takes the high ground through-out. She tries so dilgently to understand her father, for he did love her - and to interpret him to the world. At the same time, she is compassionately fair to each and every beautiful and bright young woman to whom her father, one by one, attached. The results were uniformly destructive to these women - Peggy included. In fact, one of the most interesting chapters deals with the topic of cults, and cultic indoctrination. Her dad, she asserts, knew how to do it - intuitively. Peggy Salinger obviously spent many years emotionally processing the effect on her of her highly unusual parents, specifically her father - and the truly weird upbringing she experienced. How difficult it would be to be adored and destroyed - in turn, and never with any predictability. To her immense credit her portrayal of her famous father is multi-faceted and intensely analytical, thoughtful, and even respectful. In addition, she has interviewed cooperative family members at length, and so this work is not quite a memoir - at least not wholly her momoir - but almost a history. Her reclusive father is, in fact, the only member of the family who refused to talk about J.D. Salinger.The facts of her case are at times appalling, charming, and just plain strange. For example, the author's parents eschewed the religions of their families and had a yogi, Lahiri Mahasaya. pictured in the book, who looked to the little girl (and to this reader) uncannily like Peggy's paternal grandfather, also pictured. The resemblance is striking, and like much in this book that is not necessarily wholly germane, it's another interesting thing.I liked this book very much. It leaves many questions unanswered, but - with Salinger's writings as primary and secondary source material - tells a lot, too. Definitely worth reading.