Not to be narcissistic, but I like to think of my every other Wednesday column with you Madisonians as ""my"" day. It's where I relay my opinions to you about the great ideals of literature, and you, my silently captive audience, swallow it whole. Well, all three of you who make it through the first paragraph anyway.
Of course, nobody likes to have bad things happen on ""their"" day. Note the many television shows devoted to bridezillas. This is why I was all the more devastated when two literary GIANTS up and died on the date of my last column. I was totally eclipsed! It was horrible. I really should've cried, torn my dress and refused to go on. To make matters even worse, I couldn't escape them. Novels about tortured youths and marginalized people seemed to climb the best-seller lists overnight. Phonies appeared left and right carrying their books, as if they'd read ""Nine Stories"" before last week.
It was only then that I realized: In order to do proper justice to their memories, I'd have to give up my self-pity, go on with the ceremony and devote a column in their memories, or at least to their books that I liked best.
If the authors I'm talking about aren't immediately clear, it's probably best to head back to middle school, because if you didn't read J.D. Salinger or Howard Zinn in the eighth grade, I doubt you passed it.
In order to better educate those of you who somehow did manage to get into a university without reading either of them, I turned back to my dead idols, perusing the final collection of their works.
Obviously, I began with Salinger. Let's face it; he's the writer everyone aspires to be. His college declaration of writing the ""Great American Novel"" actually came true. For all you non-English majors that's like winning the lottery, getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame and winning a Grammy all rolled into one.
Like everyone else, I worked on reliving the teen angst that typified ""The Catcher in the Rye,"" but it just wasn't enough for me. So if you, like me, want a smattering of Salinger in addition to Holden's manifesto to ease your emotional pain, check out ""Franny and Zooey,"" or pick a short story of his with the great title ""A Perfect Day for Bananafish."" It'll be worth the reread.
Zinn was somewhat harder to typify. From his credo on ""Artists in a Time of War"" to ""A People's History of the United States"" (Zinn's most famous work) to even ""Disobedience and Democracy,"" Zinn thrived on riling people up. For me, much of the time Zinn's writings flatter the same emotional disconnect that Holden held so dear.
Whether you agree with their life philosophies or not, both authors gave readers something to be upset about. And that, in and of itself, makes them worth a second look.
Do you think you could write the next ""Great American Novel?"" Tell Alex at kuskowski@wisc.edu.
