Sergeant Salinger

By Jerome Charyn

J.D. Salinger, mysterious author of The Catcher in the Rye, is remembered today as a reclusive misanthrope. Jerome Charyn's Salinger is a young American WWII draftee assigned to the Counter Intelligence Corps, a band of secret soldiers who trained with the British. A rifleman and an interrogator, he witnessed all the horrors of the war - from the landing on D-Day to the relentless hand-to-hand combat in the hedgerows of Normandy, to the Battle of the Bulge, and finally to the first Allied entry into a Bavarian death camp, where corpses were piled like cordwood.

After the war, interned in a Nuremberg psychiatric clinic, Salinger became enchanted with a suspected Nazi informant. They married, but not long after he brought her home to New York, the marriage collapsed. Maladjusted to civilian life, he lived like a 'spook', with invisible stripes on his shoulder, the ghosts of the murdered inside his head, and stories to tell.

Grounded in biographical fact and reimagined as only Charyn could, Sergeant Salinger is an astonishing portrait of a devastated young man on his way to becoming the mythical figure behind a novel that has marked generations.

'In this literary tour de force... Charyn vividly portrays Sonny's journey from slick short story writer to suffering artist. The winning result humanizes a legend' - Publishers Weekly

'Supremely engaging... A smoothly told, unexpectedly affecting foray into a lesser-known chapter of the literary giant's life' - Kirkus (Starred Review)

'Nuanced and acutely perceptive... Charyn offers an astute psychological portrait of an elusive yet vastly compelling subject' - Booklist

• Language: English
• Publisher: No Exit Press
• Release date: Oct 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9780857304728

Jerome Charyn

Jerome Charyn (b. 1937) is the critically acclaimed author of nearly fifty books. Born in the Bronx, he attended Columbia College. After graduating, he took a job as a playground director and wrote in his spare time, producing his first novel, a Lower East Side fairytale called Once Upon a Droshky, in 1964. In 1974, Charyn published Blue Eyes, his first Isaac Sidel mystery. This first in the so-called Sidel quartet introduced the eccentric, near-mythic Sidel, and his bizarre cast of sidekicks. Although he completed the quartet with Secret Isaac (1978), Charyn followed the character through Under the Eye of God. Charyn, who divides his time between New York and Paris, is also accomplished at table tennis, and once ranked amongst France’s top 10 percent of ping-pong players.

Reviews for Sergeant Salinger

[alliepascal-876024 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I can only really judge "Sergeant Salinger" as a fictional narrative, as I haven't studied Salinger's life much myself and can't judge in that regard. It's also been a while since I read Salinger's work. That said, even without context, this book was incredible. I've read some of Charyn's historical fiction before (Jerzy, The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson), so I knew he was a great writer, but he seriously outdoes himself here. He goes to some dark places, and renders those scenes in vivid, horrific detail... I think in some regards I enjoyed this book more since I went in "blind."Honestly I was never the biggest Salinger fan, but I feel pretty inspired to read him again now.

[wagner5sarah35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

*I received a copy of this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers.*Prior to this novel, I knew of J.D. Salinger only as the author of Catcher in the Rye, but in addition to writing a masterpiece, Salinger served in the military during WWII and witnessed many of the horrors of war. Those horrors fill the psychological space of this novel - Salinger is part of the Counter Intelligence Corps, meaning he investigates suspected Nazis and their informants. In this role, Salinger chases shady characters around northern France, arresting and interrogating possible SS officers, and witnessing the horrors of the camps. These sights take a toll, which is how Salinger ends up in a psychiatric clinic and is the mercy of a pretty and deceptive doctor. Overall, this novel made for interesting reading, but it was also hard to read (violence, executions, etc.) as well.

[mrmapcase · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A thoughtful, tense, pulsating look at the reclusive author J.D Salinger during World War II. My personal favorite is definitely the chapter set in the Stork Club, all of the people involved Salinger, Oona O’Neill, Frank Costello, Herman Melville, and the grand master of the scene Walter Winchell. I would love to read an entire book on just that.

[lizzied_11 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

J.D. "Sonny" Salinger as a CIC (counter intelligence) sergeant saw action in Europe in WWII. Still obsessed with Oona O'Neill Chaplin, he cleaned up the mess at Slapton Sands, landed in the second wave at Utah Beach, Normandy on D-Day, arrived in Paris for the liberation and encountered Hemingway at the Ritz, suffered through the Hurtgen Forest to the Ardennes Battle of the Bulge, witnessed the newly-liberated survivors of Kaufering Lager IV (an outlier of Dachau), committed himself to Krankenhaus 31, reenlisted for six additional months at Nurenberg. Overkill! If this were created by a novelist from whole cloth, an editor would say, "Too much!" but this is what Salinger did.Jerome Charyn is the novelist here though, and he chronicles each step on this incredible journey and subtly draws us into Salinger's dissolution.(More to follow. It's too late at this point, and I can't think.)

[lpmejia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Written in novel form, this fascinating look at the formative years of reclusive author J.D. Salinger traces the events just prior to and during World War II that shaped his worldview and later, his fiction. Like so many from his generation, he served in a war that held atrocities humanity had scarcely imagined, and as a member of the Counterintelligence Corp, Salinger was witness to more than most. It was inevitable that these experiences changed him as both a person and as a writer. Charyn handles Salinger's story with grace and an eye for detail, and I really felt as if I gained a greater insight into one of the great minds of his generation. That he was scarred by what he witnessed and suffered from PTSD now seems beyond doubt. That he and those around him suffered is a tragedy, but Charyn did the job of telling that story justice.

[grumpydan · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This novel is based on fact. The author has built a story on a young J.D. Salinger and his love for Oona O’Neill, his time in the army in counterintelligence and his life when he got home. Since Sallinger was a somewhat a recluse, it was interesting how the author got to portray him. I found myself going online to check the facts and was pleasantly surprised to learn that they were true. It deal a lot with the horrors of war and what life was like back then. The characters were interesting and some parts were more interesting to me than others.

[loafhunter13 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a very creative approach to examining the development and eventual artistry of J.D. Salinger. The book is a historical fiction work on Salinger's life in the U.S. military during WWII and the possible effects of that time period on his own eventual publications. The book seems well researched and does a very good job with character development, introspection, and pacing. The story by itself is an interesting read with a fascinating plot but challenges the reader further by giving them food for thought at what might lay behind the mind of the reclusive Salinger when he began his own writing career.