The last book-length work of fiction by J. D. Salinger published in his lifetime, it collects two novellas.
These two novellas, set seventeen years apart, are both concerned with Seymour Glass — the eldest son of J. D. Salinger's fictional Glass family — as recalled by his closest brother, Buddy.
"He was a great many things to a great many people while he lived, and virtually all things to his brothers and sisters in our somewhat outsized family. Surely he was all real things to our blue-striped unicorn, our double-lensed burning glass, our consultant genius, our portable conscience, our supercargo, and our one full poet..."
Endorsements
"one of the liveliest, funniest, most fully realized families in all fiction" — New York Times