cover image Letters to J D Salinger

Letters to J D Salinger

. University of Wisconsin Press, $24.95 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-299-17800-0

""I'm only writing to you because my analyst insisted,"" begins one of the missives in Letters to J.D. Salinger. These 70-some notes to the legendary recluse edited by Chris Kubica, who runs the Web site jdsalinger.com, and Will Hochman, a Southern Connecticut State University English professor come from prominent writers like Tom Robbins, Nicholas Delbanco, David Shields, as well as from teachers, high school students and other readers. They vary in tone from starry-eyed and humorous to hostile. ""I think of people like Holden,"" writes one teenager, ""who have loads of money to spend on fancy Ivy League schools and instead flunk out, and it makes me want to spit."" (Apr. 15)