My Salinger Year: A Memoir

Though the title mentions Salinger, he is not the main focus of My Salinger Year. Sure, he makes appearances, but this is more of a coming of age story about a young girl trying to make it in NYC and a company trying to adjust to the modern world. You do not have to be a Salinger fan to enjoy this book. I was pleasantly surprised by this and ended up loving this book...enough to push it onto my upcoming Best Books of 2014 List and my Holiday Gift Guide! At first, I kept thinking Rakoff was living in the 1950's rather than the 1990's. The smoking in the office, the typewriters (and accompanying lack of computers), and the huge Dictaphone contraptions all confounded me until I read this quote from Joanna's friend, Jenny... "But really the Agency is like something out of Dickens. You step inside, and it's like you've time traveled back a hundred years." Then, I realized I was supposed to have been Jedi mind tricked into thinking I was watching an episode of "Mad Men"! However, this element was the source of a lot of the story's humor and eccentricity. What really made me love My Salinger Year was Rakoff's tone and writing style (hence the number of quotes in this review!). She writes with humor, irony, and an appreciation for the ridiculous. On her increasingly irrelevant boss: "My boss, as far as I knew, had no children, and she - like a certain breed of adult - appeared to have never been a child herself, but rather to have materialized on earth fully formed, in a taupe-hued pantsuit, cigarette in hand." I especially loved her commentary on Don, her Communist boyfriend who tries so hard to be "authentic" that he ends up just being ridiculous. "He surrounded himself with fools - the broken, the failed or failing, the sad and confused - so that he might be their king. Which, obviously, made him nothing but the king of fools." "Don had refused to come home with me for my grandmother's birthday, citing his opposition to the tradition, but - here again - I suspected that this alleged ideological stance might be simply a smoke screen for either poverty or cheapness, that he didn't want to spend the money on a bus ticket, not to mention a gift for my grandmother." Though I'm not a devoted Salinger fan and the only thing of his that I've read is The Catcher in the Rye (and I've only read that once...in high school), I did enjoy his eccentricity and found the humor in all the intricate rules that surrounded the Agency's "handling" of him. I also enjoyed learning some of the history behind his writing and am now more likely to reread The Catcher in the Rye at some point. Rakoff's writing and the coming-of-age element to her story made this one of my favorite books of the year and my favorite memoir of the year. Check out my blog, Sarah's Book Shelves, for more reviews.

This was an enjoyable coming of age book about a recent college grad trying to find her path. Although I attended a Texas school and began my career there versus NYC, I found the story relatable. I remember the feeling of 'now what?,' the shock of paying my own bills on a low salary and trying to determine if my college boyfriend was 'the one.' I could also relate to her love for literature, sadness over changing friendships and shifting priorities. I had also re-read Salinger ( and several other favorite authors) as an adult and, like the author, saw the books differently each phase of my life. My only complaint was that I never really understood what motivated her to leave College Boyfriend or Husband in the first place. While the main focus of the book was her life while working at The Agency, I still would have liked a couple sentences on the topic. It seemed like she was just kind of floating along wherever life took her without a lot of consideration. Maybe she was unsure why herself? Other than that small issue,it was a very well written, insightful book.

So good I read it in 2014 and again in 2024. It’s the 90s, Rakoff, a young, aspiring writer, an eager new editorial assistant to an aloof agent at a prestigious Manhattan literary agency with all the trappings of an old school office as in typewriters and Dictaphones, not a computer in sight. Her stern boss isn’t the sort to take her new associate under her wings, rather, she assigns her task with strict orders. One of the agency’s long-term clients, the one and only J.D. Salinger, who calls the office frequently (they handle his mail, queries for appearances, from fans) and the reclusive author isn’t to be bothered with any minutia, put straight through to her boss, no questions asked, no chit chat. If she happened to be awestruck, forget about it. But that’s not how things went down. Rakoff and Salinger developed their own rapport over the phone and simultaneously, she took it upon herself, instead of simply writing polite standard form thank you letters to his admirers, typically young fans whose work had in various ways changed their lives, she wrote back thoughtful exchanges, knowing how meaningful it would be to them. Rakoff’s memoir isn’t solely dedicated to Salinger, although if that’s what you’re looking for, you’ll be plenty satisfied with her tender, colorful, stories about the literary legend. She also regales readers in this coming of age as she navigates life in NYC post-college; working for a feisty boss, controlling boyfriend, writers who influenced her.

Joanna chronicles her first year in the real world working. At the literary agency, she finds out that the agencies main client is the one, the only, J.D Salinger. It was a fun read at times, and as a book lover/english-nerd myself, I enjoyed hearing about the authors real love of books. I realized when reading this book that somehow I've gone 28 years without reading anything from Salinger, so immediately upon finishing this book I bought Catcher in the Rye. As the fan letters to Salinger that are chronicled in this novel made it so I felt like I was really missing out on a great author. I think I would have liked the book more if it just focused on life at the agency. As I mean, for me the stories of her NYC life with her friends and her boyfriend just confused me. The friends seemed flat...and the boyfriend horrible. They just seemed like unnecessary characters who didn't really do anything for me. I mean come on, the bf couldn't have been that horrible or why would you stay with him for a year? If these side characters were going to be included in the novel, I would have appreciated more of an depth and honest look at them.

This book had been on my wish list for a while -- I regret not reading it sooner ! I really enjoyed the storytelling and the story itself...at first, I thought it was set in the 60s but nope, it was set in the 90s... now i will have to read Catcher in the Rye again and possibly the other Salinger books.

This is a well-written, interesting slice of literary life in New York , and of culture in general at the dawn of the internet age, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. The way the book is described, it seemed like it was going to be focused much more on the fan letters Rakoff has to reply to, in lieu of the notoriously reclusive Salinger. But it focused more on her personal life, often giving information that felt a bit incomplete. Still, overall this was a very enjoyable read, one of those ones that takes you to a completely different place.

1996 zieht die 24-jährige Joanna Rakoff wieder nach New York, um dort nach beendetem Studium in London Arbeit zu finden. Ihre Ansprüche sind hoch: "I didn't want to be normal. I wanted to be extraordinary. I wanted to write novels and make films and speak ten languages and travel around the world." Gemeinsam mit ihrem marxistischen Freund Don, von dem ihr Freund aus der Studienzeit nichts weiß, bezieht sie ein schäbiges Appartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Joanna Rakoff hat Literaturwissenschaft studiert und findet trotz Rezession sofort eine Anstellung als Assistentin in einer Literatur-Agentur, deren Namen Rakoff genau wie den ihrer Chefin diskret verschweigt. Wer mag, kann im Intenet recherchieren, welche Namen sich dahinter verbergen. Es ist Rakoffs erste Arbeitsstelle und sie hat nur vage Vorstellungen davon, was sie zu tun hat und was von ihr erwartet wird. Am ersten Arbeitstag erfährt sie, dass The Agency "Jerry" Salinger vertritt, der jeglichen Kontakt mit der Öffentlichkeit meidet. Hauptaufgabe der jungen Frau, die am liebsten Manuskripte lesen und Kontakt mit Autoren haben möchte, wird es für längere Zeit, die Fan-Post an Salinger mit einem eigens auf der Schreibmaschine abzutippenden abschlägigen Formbrief zu bescheiden, der seit den 60er Jahren unverändert jedem Adressaten zurück gesandt wird. Computer haben in The Agency, die aus einem Dickens-Roman stammen könnte, noch keinen Einzug gehalten. Salinger soll keine Fanpost bekommen und nicht kontaktiert werden; unmissverständlich die Anweisung der kettenrauchenden Chefin, dass das auch for Rakoff selbst gilt. Gleichwohl scheint es eine fast sexuelle Erregung zu sein, die Rakoff überkommt, als ihr bewußt wird, dass sie für Salinger arbeitet: "My body convulsed, briefly, as the chill air insinuated itself into my hot points." Dazu das Bewußtsein: "I was already part of something." Schließlich kommt es zu einer kleinen Sensation, als Salinger nach Jahrzehnten ein neues Buch veröffentlichen will. Jedoch handelt es sich um keinen neuen Text, sondern um seine vielleicht schwächste Erzählung, die nun in einem engagierten Kleinstverlag publiziert werden soll. Diesem "Hapworth-Deal" verdankt Rakoff es, dass sie allmählich Kontakte knüpfen kann und sich eine Tür in die Welt des Literaturbetriebs für sie öffnet. MY SALINGER YEAR ist eine "Einjahresbiographie", in der Joanna Rakoff sich und ihren Lesern Bericht erstattet über ein entscheidendes Jahr ihres Lebens, in welchem sie Salinger und seinem Werk begegnete und ihre Kindheit und Jugend endgültig abstreift, um zu erkennen, wohin ihr Weg sie führen wird. Es ist eine authentische coming-of-age Geschichte einer sympathischen jungen Frau, über ihre Liebes- und Geldnöte, ihre Erfahrung, dass Freundschaften oft nicht ewig halten und das Leben sich ändert. Der Buchtitel ist wörtlich zu nehmen, es geht in MY SALINGER YEAR nicht um Salinger, sondern darum, was die Begegnung mit ihm und seinen Texten für die Erzählerin bedeuten. Für die meisten Heranwachsenden und jungen Erwachsenen gibt es einen Soundtrack zum Leben, Songs, die für eine bestimmte Stimmung stehen, diese besser auszudrücken scheinen, als irgend etwas anderes das könnte. Songs, die der Stimmung entsprechen, zugleich aber auch Stimmung schaffen. Wunderbar beschrieben hat das auch Lavinia Greenlaw in ihrem Buch THE IMPORTANCE OF MUSIC TO GIRLS. Für Joanna Rakoff erweist sich Salinger als der Soundtrack, der sie begleitet und ihr hilft, die für sie richtigen Entscheidungen zu treffen. Einerseits beweist Rakoff mit diesem Buch großes Einfühlungsvermögen, zugleich aber auch eine sehr starke Ichbezogenheit, die manchmal skurril wirkt, z.B. wenn sie berichtet, welches Kleid sie an einem bestimmten Tag trug, dass sie es "über einen schwarzen Slip" anzog, und welches Sandwich sie an diesem Tag gegessen hat. MY SALINGER YEAR ist ein Buch über die Liebe zur Literatur; darüber, wie schwer es manchmal ist, die richtige Entscheidung zu treffen; es ist vom Willen geprägt, den eigenen Weg zu finden und zu beschreiten, und vor allem ist es ein Buch über Joanna Rakoff, eine Autobiographie eines Jahres.

Though I fall into the camp of not having read any of Salinger's books before arriving at ‘My Salinger Year,’ I most certainly will start now! However, that's not what initially drew me to this book (as strange as this may sound when you consider the title!) What caught my attention was the role, Joanna, as a 23-year-old found herself in as a literary agent’s assistant, against a background of the magical New York City. The concept of working in such an old-fashioned office and agency, encased in the literary scene was my main reason for wanting to read this book. And I'm so glad I did because I absolutely adored this. This is one of those books that I was compelled to snatch as many reading sessions over the space of a day as I could because I simply needed to read on and find out more. Joanna’s writing is fluid, warm, and inviting and she doesn’t stoop to generalisation or bitchiness. Because of this, it is an absolute joy to read about her journey in this most fascinating of industries. Better still, Joanna wasn’t your typical wannabe writer when starting out at the agency. So, she, therefore, allowed herself to open up to this new world around her and grow with it. I don’t think that this book will be to everybody's taste as it's hugely biographical, but it has its own kind of magic in that of a most unique memoir and a most approachable writing style throughout.

This is a very readable, entertaining and interesting memoir giving an intriguing window into J.D. Salinger and his work. I loved the writing style Joanna Rakoff used to share a year in her life working as an assistant at a literary agency in New York. It was very rhythmic and heart felt. I listened to the book as an audiobook; the narrator was the author; she did a really good job. Because I edit and assist an author (J.A. Wells) publish his works, I have an interest in all the facets of publishing and writing, so I enjoyed this book on many levels. As a reader, I've never believed I would be interested in J.D. Salinger's book, Catcher in the Rye, however after reading Ms Rakoff's book, the first thing I did was get a copy of Catcher in the Rye. Five stars for Ms Rakoff's book, I loved it.