A Perfect Day for Bananafish

Read this story written by J.D. Salinger for The New Yorker in 1948, and later published in his 1953 collection: Nine Stories. Read it not just for the captivating ending, but also for the perfection achieved so rarely in short story writing. Seymour Glass and his young friend Sybil come alive through Salinger's words; every word spoken is so natural that it is almost expected by the reader. Real life can't be described with words you say? Well Salinger gets pretty damn close here. The interactions between an old sick man and a young child at the beach are written so sincerely that it is hard to look away from the text; their casual conversation drawing you in with its utter realism.
" From the late 60's he [Salinger] has avoided publicity. Journalists have assumed, that because he doesn't give interviews, he has something to hide. In 1961 Time Magazine sent a team of reporters to investigate his private life. "I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure," said Salinger in 1974 to a New York Times correspondent. However, according to Joyce Maynard, who was close to the author for a long time from the 1970s, Salinger still writes, but nobody is allowed to see the work." (read more)