If John Cheever and Paul Coelho had set out to collaborate on The Royal Tenenbaums, the result would have been Franny and Zooey. J.D. Salinger’s short, two-part novel is the story of sister and brother, Franny and Zooey Glass, the youngest of seven precocious whiz kids who grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Ostensibly, Zooey is trying to help Franny, who is in the midst of a breakdown. It soon becomes clear, however, that both have been unmoored by the suicide of their oldest brother Seymour and the related, self-imposed academic exile of their next-oldest brother Buddy.

Full review posted on Rose City Reader.

I know lots of people don’t like the fat lady is god speech at the end, but I like it. Not being as clever as the Glass clan (or many of others out there), and perhaps too sentimental, like the idea of (excuse me brushing off my psych degree here) Csikszentmihalyi-ian flow being the jesus prayer.

My question is, why would you be opposed to it? Is it because it is a bit heavy handed, too grade philosophy/religion 101, too obvious?