Skip to main content
Close

Salinger: You’ve Got to Dig For the Point

By Monica Terada · September 9, 2013

The “hermit” author of The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger, is caught on camera taking a few steps outside his house. The pictures are out of focus and not interesting at all. But that’s what we see, over and over again, along with some pictures of him as a young man, in the just-released documentary of the renowned writer’s personal life. That’s what happens when you make a documentary of someone who just doesn’t want to be documented.

Salinger wanted privacy. He did not want the fame and attention that comes along with being the author of a widely acclaimed and internationally recognized novel, as was, The Catcher in the Rye. He was a writer and he wanted to write…period.

His dedication went as far as abandoning his family to live in a shack right in the backyard of his own house. His family knew exactly where he was, but they couldn’t reach him.

Which also pretty much resembles the documentary. Everyone knew where he was, but couldn’t really reach him.

Salinger is portrayed as an eccentric recluse, in the sense that he didn't lead a reclusive lifestyle, but, appeared and disappeared at whim. So, he was a recluse when he wanted to be.

Controversial issues of Salinger’s life are raised in the film, such as, his passion for younger women…err, I mean, girls, teenage girls. Throughout his life he becomes infatuated with many younger girls, having love affairs with some, and eventually even marrying one, an au pair whom he corresponded with through letters for a while.

But, the most exciting part of the documentary, the one that actually matters, is not the author’s eccentric taste, or his solitary existence, it’s his writing: his great writing and passion for it.

In order to see that, however, you have to put aside the visually boring images and completely overdone musical soundtrack that makes you feel like you’re in one of those Hollywood blockbuster movies. Salinger does have its appeal: it’s a motivating flick for those who are in the writing business, a tough business with a ruthless heart.

Salinger’s stories were rejected innumerous times by The New Yorker, and his family rejected by him, due to his writing being first and foremost. But, he didn’t give up, and his discipline was as tough as a buffalo. He wrote and wrote and wrote, until the day he died, even if that meant giving up family and friends, and maybe even his sanity.

The lesson here learned is, only a writer knows what it takes to become one, and that’s a lot. Writing means shedding blood before you can call it a first draft and then racking your brain, over and over again, losing your sanity, and all hope that you were ever a writer to begin with, before you can call it the final draft.

If you can put up with the over-the-top Hollywood uproar, and not fall asleep to the repetitive images, you might just find that message in Salinger.