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Joanna Smith Rakoff

Forfatter af My Salinger Year

3 Works 736 Members 58 Reviews 1 Favorited

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Omfatter også følgende navne: Joanna Rakoff, Joanna Smith Rakoff

Image credit: Author photo by Mark Ostow

Værker af Joanna Smith Rakoff

My Salinger Year (2014) 505 eksemplarer
A Fortunate Age (2009) 230 eksemplarer
Mon année Salinger (2014) 1 eksemplar

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A very interesting account of the author's year working at a literary agency in New York.
 
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secondhandrose | 38 andre anmeldelser | Oct 31, 2023 |
I just loved this book!
 
Markeret
schoenbc70 | 38 andre anmeldelser | Sep 2, 2023 |
What a delightful read! For those of you looking for an enjoyable, lighthearted easy-to-read memoir that doesn't involve rape, murder, incest, or terrible heartbreak, this one's a good bet. Joanna tells the story of her job as an assistant at the Agency, a literary agency in New York that is both prestigious and extremely resistant to change. The Agency happens to represent "Jerry" also known as the reclusive J.R. Salinger. Salinger gets quite loving treatment in Rakoff's hands, but the Agency and her socialist boyfriend, Don, do not. The story is a small one, and you won't be on an emotional roller coaster by any means, but it was just an intriguing look from an insider perspective at Agency life as well as the story of a young woman trying to make her way in the world for the first time. The literary angle was icing on the cake for this book lover. I have read some Salinger, but this book also really made me want to revisit Catcher in the Rye and read Nine Stories already. It was very helpful to have recently read Franny and Zooey since that book was referenced quite a bit. If you like Salinger, definitely add this to your list.… (mere)
 
Markeret
Anita_Pomerantz | 38 andre anmeldelser | Mar 23, 2023 |
Joanna Rakoff's MY SALINGER YEAR (2014) is a memoir, something I had to keep reminding myself, because it reads like a novel, and a pretty good one at that. In it, Rakoff looks back at 1995-96, the year she spent working as a Iow-paid "assistant" to a demanding "boss" at an unnamed prestigious NYC literary agency after dropping out of grad school. An aspiring poet, she also leaves her long-time boyfriend and moves into a rundown, unheated apartment with an older, world-wise, self-styled "socialist," also an aspiring writer. Her boss's main client is, of course, the reclusive J.D. Salinger, or "Jerry," as she comes to know him via her boss (who is herself a strange character). Rakoff had never read any of Salinger's work, but finally reads all of it, over one long marathon weekend of reading. Holden and the Glass family and Salinger's New York City all come alive for her then, especially so as she reads the author's voluminous fan mail, still arriving daily. One of her jobs at the agency is reading that mail, and to respond with a form letter, which she finds hard to do. There is much here about the publishing game, "slush piles," books, agents and poor wages, as well as some glimpses of Rakoff's family background and her troubled dating life in the 1990s. As I said, it reads like fiction, or, at the very least, "creative non-fiction."

The book was actually something of an international bestseller, translated into several languages, but I only heard about it because I read Rakoff's blurb on the back of another book, Daisy Alpert Florin's debut novel, MY LAST INNOCENT YEAR, just released this week (a book I actually enjoyed even more than this one).

J.D. Salinger, even though he is gone now, and published nothing after 1965, continues to have millions of fans worldwide. I suspect that fact helped make Rakoff's book a success, though Salinger himself is mostly a peripheral character here. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Very highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER
… (mere)
 
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TimBazzett | 38 andre anmeldelser | Feb 18, 2023 |

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Statistikker

Værker
3
Medlemmer
736
Popularitet
#34,515
Vurdering
½ 3.7
Anmeldelser
58
ISBN
32
Sprog
5
Udvalgt
1

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