Salinger pushing up the daisies finally

Not to be disrespectful to the dead, but America's biggest misanthrope finally passed away. I remember reading "The Catcher in the Rye" in my high school reading class circa 9th grade, and thinking, "Okay." A few weeks later we read Shakespeare's Hamlet, and I was totally blown away. So I would say that by the middle of 9th grade I already felt that I had outgrown Salinger. Anyway, he's dead recently. He was freakish about keeping his privacy, yet his daughter, fairly recently went against his wishes and published a book called "Dreamcatcher" and a former lover also published a book about him. Both books paint a picture of a freakish, obsessive and monstrous personality.

Here's the yucky, rather fawning obituary in the Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/books/29salinger.html?hp=&pagewanted=all

Anyway, if you choose to be sentimental about the old monster's passing into the afterlife, you might pick up a copy of Catcher in the Rye and head to the Museum of Natural History. You can read and walk as you trace the wanderings of the main character, Holden Caufield, through the museum, and afterward go on a sentimental journey through New York, tracing Holden's rantings and ramblings as you go. Why do I have the feeling we're going to see a lot of self-obsessed twenty-somethings at the museum in the next few weeks, all with a copy of this book in their back pockets.

Another factoid: The guy who shot John Lennon said it was because he had been inspired by The Catcher in the Rye. Way to go, Salinger.