Salinger

Have you seen the documentary Salinger yet? I watched it over the weekend and now all I want to do is re-read all of J.D. Salinger books or I should say all of Jerry's books.  I think my first memory of even hearing about JD Salinger was when I was in 8th grade and the school was making us read Catcher in Rye. Yes making, I've always loved books but some of those books in school I could barely keep my eyes open to read them.  To be honest, I don't really remember that much of the story other than it was about a coming of age story and it was set during World War II. I don't even remember loving it or hating it but chalking it up to a book that I read in school. This documentary is about putting together the pieces of J.D. Salinger's life because with the fame of his book Catcher in the Rye, he started to withdraw and hide from the spotlight.  His fans would drive 100s of miles and wait outside of his gate of his home just to try and meet him or even get a glimpse of him.  The beginning of the film shows a photographer just trying to get his picture and camps outside of the post office where Salinger has a PO Box and he waits for days but finally gets a photo.  I also think the documentary was great because they interviewed several of his muses and took us on a journey of his sort of I want to say romantic and far away life.

In the documentary he completely reminded me of Andy Warhol. Salinger being rejected from the New Yorker countless of times because the New Yorker was the magazine for all elite writers to be published in.  Andy Warhol being rejected from MOMA tons of times too, in fact I have a copy of a rejection letter from Andy Warhol hanging in my studio. :) It reminds me never to give up and I love being reminded about how much persistence and dedication artists have to have for their craft.  Being a creative is a lonely business- of being tucked away in your studio.. working as hard as you possibly can and always hoping if the work is good enough. Andy Warhol loved the spotlight where as Salinger did not but both of their fans were extremely loyal and would go to the ends of the earth to meet them or see what they are working on and they both really gained their fame in the 60's.  Salinger worked alone in an army bunker with a cot but Warhol loved to be surrounded by people, but they both were infatuated with their muses.  Warhol produced a ton of work and sold a lot of work but Salinger stopped releasing his work in 1963.

The best part of the documentary is the very end because Salinger before he died set up a trust- like most rich and or famous people do. In his trust he is set to have novels released in 2015 and then again 2020. Even though it's a few years off from new material, now all I want to do is reread his books.

Seen any good documentary's lately?  PS this one is on netflix.