[Bananafish] Nine Stories

[James Rovira]

Kenneth--I do remember you saying that about Teddy but must have
missed your comment about Pretty Mouth...sorry about that.

Even excluding Pretty Mouth from consideration, I still wonder about
the idea being presented here.  Bananafish as a standalone story seems
helpless and pointless and above all, hopeless.  Even if the Seymour
in that story is sensitive, artistic, and not just unhinged he doesn't
seem to have any other way out.  Uncle Wiggly doesn't seem to offer
much hope at the end either: the housewife seems trapped and unhappy
and bound to continue taking that out on her daughter for the rest of
her life.  Boo Boo's story doesn't seem particularly happy either, but
this one and the one about the kid on the ball team is a bit faded
from my memory.

DDS and, definitely, Esme fit your bill quite well.  In fact, I'd say
Esme is probably the best of all Salinger stories ending with hope and
an epiphany, and I can see Teddy being a statement of faith of sorts.

Anyway, I would tend to line the stories up into separate categories
rather than saying they all (except Pretty Mouth) end in hope.

I would say Bananafish, Pretty Mouth, and Uncle Wiggly are stories
about despair.

DDS, Esme, and Teddy are epiphanic stories--Teddy had his epiphany
already; the reader has his/her epiphany on Teddy's death.

The other three I think I'll have to reread, but they may be mixed.
Funny that it's these three I don't have a clear memory of.

Jim R