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Here, Caulfield stays frozen in time

July 1, 2009 | Leave a Comment

essay-190JEROME DAVID SALINGER’S best known character has been given a reprieve from aging and being thrust into an unfamiliar plot.

Swedish book publisher Fredrik Colting who published 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye under the pen name John David California, holds that the new work is “a legally protected commentary and parody”.

But today a federal judge indefinitely banned publication of the unauthorized sequel in the United States. If it really is that bad, I’d rather a copy got leaked on the intertubes so we can all enjoy a good laugh and Mr Colting doesn’t get to see another red cent as penance for using an awful title, pen-name and legal defense.

After all, banning something tends to generate curiosity and push up the price for satisfying it.

In a suit filed on June 1, lawyers for Mr. Salinger in the copyright infringement lawsuit contended that the new work was derivative of “Catcher” and Holden Caulfield, and infringed on Mr. Salinger’s copyright.

The work by Mr. Colting, 33, centers on a 76-year-old “Mr. C,” the creation of a writer named Mr. Salinger. Although the name Holden Caulfield does not appear in the book, Mr. C is clearly Holden, one of the best-known adolescent figures in American fiction, aged 60 years.

Mr. Colting’s lawyers argued, among other things, that the new work, titled “60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye,” did not violate copyright because it amounted to a critical parody that had the effect of transforming the original work.

Judge Batts rejected that argument, writing, “The Court finds such contentions to be post-hoc rationalizations employed through vague generalizations about the alleged naivety of the original, rather than reasonably perceivable parody.”

Read the full NY Times story

About The book

The plot has Caulfield as a 76-year-old man on the run from a nursing home in New York. God help us. Apart from the apparent paucity of plot, the book should be stopped just for the wielding an appalling nom-de-plume…

60years-later2Look at the little rabbit, a young boy in an old man’s cloak, he doesn’t suspect a thing. In a way I do feel bad for him, for getting into this mess in the first place. It’s really all my fault. I should have done something about this a long time ago. But then again, how could I have known? To be honest, I’m not completely sure how this works. Even though I’m the one holding all the strings, I don’t know what happens to them when we let them be without care for so long. Do they meet with others and create lives like yours and mine? Or are they simply placed inside a cocoon and awakened only when you again sharpen your pencil? There are so many questions I don’t have any answers to.

On a seemingly normal day J.D. Salinger dusts off his old typewriter and sets out doing what he should have done a long time ago. As he strikes the keys and brings his most famous character back to life, Mr. C wakes up in a nursing home with an unnerving compulsion to flee his present situation. He boards a bus and embarks on a curious journey through the streets of New York. Sixty years after his debut as the great American antihero, Mr. C is yanked back onto the page by his creator without a goddamn clue why.

In this speculative psychological mystery J.D. Salinger confronts his most famous character!

– from the “Official” Sixty Years Later website. One wonders about literacy levels, looking at the site.

A good concept, not original perhaps, but somewhat interesting, perhaps even leading to a readable book?

About JD California

coltingBeneath the fabulous headline Fraud behind Salinger fraud admits he’s a fraud on June 12 Dennis Johnson writes:

The Swedish publisher of the book 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, has admitted that he lied and that he, in fact, is the author of the book, and that he made up, and gave interviews as, and staged photographs of, a fake author he called John David California.

In a May 14 Guardian interview, the fictitious California claims to have been captivated by Caulfield:

California said he was moved to write the book – his first – because he’d “always wondered what happened to [Caulfield] … he deserves to have another life than just his 16 years”. He’d tried, he added, to be “very respectful” to both Caulfield and Salinger’s status as “American icons”. “I thought about it and tried to handle it very delicately. I like the story and Holden and I wanted to keep it respectful.”

In fact Galley Cat of mediabistro had suspected a hoax, calling into question the author bio (since removed) on the US Amazon site which claimed that The Catcher in the Rye had done nothing less than save the life of this gravedigger-cum-Ironman triathlete-turned-author while he was marooned in Cambodia.

Still visible on Amazon.co.uk is the full bio:

Born in California to a Swedish mother and an American father, where John David’s parents were working for a traveling circus company, John David was named after the state in which he was born. John David’s writing career started as a freelance travel writer for several international magazines, as well as several short film scripts.

The former gravedigger and Ironman triathlete has been captivated by the story for years. After finding a well-travelled copy of The Catcher in the Rye in an abandoned cabin in rural Cambodia, the iconic characters within saw John through the most maniacal of tropical fevers and chronic isolation. Years later he was finally able to return the favour, holding the fate of Mr. C in his inspired hands with 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye.

Everyone’s a critic

Already available across the Atlantic this “legally protected commentary and parody” has left one Powell’s Books reader with this impression:

chrisdeb1, June 21, 2009

I just finished reading 60 Years Later…so I feel that unlike the other reviewers, I have a basis to comment on.

Salinger should not be suing due to copyright infringement, rather he should be suing John David California for having such little talent, and WindUpBird Publishing for trying to cash in on the controversy this book was sure to stir up.

After 60 years of waiting for a follow-up we all knew would never come, to say the book is a let down is an understatement. Mr. California shows absolutely no talent for writing, story telling, nor for any imagination what so ever. If he only published this book for a quick buck, he succeeded. If he thought that he had a real story to tell, he is a dillusioned fool.

Not perhaps the most eloquent phraseology, but he did apparently read the book and perhaps he is representative of JD California’s target audience. Which is alarming all by itself.

On the other hand amazon.co.uk readers Philip S and starskythehutch have this to say :

Though we all know sequels are inherently risky, (especially when the sequel is to J.D Salinger’s great American novel A Catcher in the Rye) 60 Years Later is a compulsive read and an interesting debut. In reincarnating Holden Caulfield as Mr. C, California has provided many of us with a long awaited conclusion to one of literature’s most intriguing stories. Entertaining, absorbing and ultimately satisfying, this is a remarkable story with one hell of a twist.

— Philip S

Told in the first person, 60 Years Later is narrated by none other than Holden Caulfield -all grown up. We meet Mr. C (as the title would suggest) 60 years after his creation by the legendary J. D. Salinger. He seems as confused and bewildered as the reader is to be “yanked back onto the page”, but John David California’s treatment of this notorious character is both careful and amusing. We are led through the streets of New York and introduced to some idiosyncratic auxiliary characters as the fundamental question is posed: can a character have a life of its own? 60 Years Later is a great read, highly recommended.

— starskythehutch

So of course I am curious to see whether the book is really all it’s cracked up — or dumbed down — to be. I am going to get my hands on a copy, and while I am prepared to be impressed, I fear my verdict of awful title, awful pen name will probably remain.


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