Often overshadowed by J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, the equally provocative but more developed counterpart novel Franny and Zooey was published in 1961, about 10 years after Catcher. If Catcher deals with ‘phonies’ and the perils of coming-of-age within a post-war sentiment, Franny and Zooey completes the immature and self-loathing narrative that began with Holden Caulfield with self-awareness and closure as Salinger introduces us to the Glass Family. While Franny and Zooey was originally published separately as a short story and novella focusing on two children from the Glass family series, Frances “Franny” and Zachary “Zooey” Glass, in which the slim novel reflects their personal coming-of-age as privileged young adults trying to solidify their place in the world and only really have each other to bear witness.
The first part follows Franny Glass, the youngest of the family, as we are introduced to a self-absorbed 20-year-old college student in the backdrop of Yale during the fall of 1955 as she takes a train to visit her boyfriend for an Ivy football game against Princeton. On the outside, she is comparable to a female Caulfield tormented by academic ‘phonies’ of the higher education system as she condemns her peers and professors, yet she seeks answers in spiritual texts that contemplate her relationship with God and the meaning of devotion. The novel reveals the true Franny Glass as Salinger’s narration hyper-focuses on a painfully tense and loveless date in which her spiritual breakdown forces us to question the meaning of devotion in a mundane sense. Franny desperately tries to level the root cause of her spiritual revelation with her apathetic boyfriend as the narration highlights one-sided conversations and subtle body language cues that offer a gendered analysis of emotional alienation.
Salinger’s heavy description of body language and characterization is key to understanding how part one of “Franny” is answered by the second part introducing Franny’s older brother, Zooey. As Franny reaches her breaking point, the built-up anxiety culminates as she passes out at the cafe and her boyfriend falls away as a superficial accessory. Part two, titled “Zooey,” picks up with a frustrating but ever-relatable scene of 25-year-old actor Frances Glass in a heated argument with his mother over getting in touch with Franny after her breakdown that causes her to recuperate at home. Zooey presents himself with equal arrogance met with exasperation as he deflects the dysfunctional family dynamic between his mother and younger sister with pointed and abrasive one-liners. As Zooey practices a script for an upcoming TV show, he rereads an old letter sent from the eldest Glass son that had passed.
Similar to its earlier counterpart “Franny,” “Zooey” is intense in descriptive setting and character mindset, yet this second part offers a grounding moment that reassures the reader that the fever of academic phonies and religious zeal will pass. Zooey’s character study reflects a time when Franny’s frantic and raw pain becomes a dull ache as they both understand each other’s grief after the death of a loved one. Franny and Zooey is compelling in characterization as the siblings portray exhaustion and isolation that is enduring but made bearable through their complex connection. Salinger’s writing stands out as witty yet emotionally transparent and humanizing, almost juxtaposed to Caulfield’s narration, in which Franny and Zooey offer the reader comfort and reconciliation.
