Do It for the Fat Lady: Spiritual Crisis and Comic Mercy in ‘Franny and Zooey’

J.D. Salinger’s Quiet Classic Still Speaks. Who’s Listening?

In the final section of Franny and Zooey, the latter of our titular characters walks into the abandoned bedroom of his two older brothers, Seymour and Buddy, both of whom moved out several years before, their room largely unchanged since.

A pair of beds, desks, chairs, and a few other items occupy the space. “The rest, with very little exaggeration, was …