
My Salinger Year
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Narrated by:
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Joanna Rakoff
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By:
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Joanna Rakoff
Poignant, keenly observed, and irresistibly funny: a memoir about literary New York in the late 90s, a pre-digital world on the cusp of vanishing, where a young woman finds herself entangled with one of the last great figures of the century.
At 23, after leaving graduate school to pursue her dreams of becoming a poet, Joanna Rakoff moves to New York City and takes a job as assistant to the storied literary agent for J. D. Salinger. She spends her days in a plush, wood-paneled office, where Dictaphones and typewriters still reign and old-time agents doze at their desks after martini lunches. At night she goes home to the tiny, threadbare Williamsburg apartment she shares with her socialist boyfriend. Precariously balanced between glamour and poverty, surrounded by titanic personalities, and struggling to trust her own artistic instinct, Rakoff is tasked with answering Salinger’s voluminous fan mail. But as she reads the candid, heart-wrenching letters from his readers around the world, she finds herself unable to type out the agency’s decades-old form response. Instead, drawn inexorably into the emotional world of Salinger’s devotees, she abandons the template and begins writing back. Over the course of the year, she finds her own voice by acting as Salinger’s, on her own dangerous and liberating terms.
Rakoff paints a vibrant portrait of a bright, hungry young woman navigating a heady and longed-for world, trying to square romantic aspirations with burgeoning self-awareness, the idea of a life with life itself. Charming and deeply moving, filled with electrifying glimpses of an American literary icon, My Salinger Year is the coming-of-age story of a talented writer. Above all, it is a testament to the universal power of books to shape our lives and awaken our true selves.
©2014 Joanna Rakoff (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...




















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Loved it
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Good story great performance
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I loved this memoir!
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Wonderful and thought-provoking
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Great on many levels
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Dynamic quick read
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i liked the writers/narrators easygoing manner. it took the edge off of some
of the more exasperating characters. i enjoyed hearing the story of her year in the literary business if that’s what you call it? my family had a business that was established in 1934 & before i took over in 1999 it was a 1920’s/30’s typewriter (not quite sure exactly but it was OLD.) So i could relate. i still have fond memories of doing things the old way.
All the way through the book i found
myself begging her
to dump that sleazy boyfriend! I wanted to hear all about her dumping him & moving on. it does make me want to read Salinger again.
sweet
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Joanna is right on.
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Great read!
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Great book.
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