| Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction | |
|---|---|
1st edition |
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| Author(s) | J. D. Salinger |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Little, Brown |
| Publication date | 1963 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 248 pp |
| Preceded by | Franny and Zooey |
| Followed by | "Hapworth 16, 1924" |
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction is a single volume featuring two novellas by J. D. Salinger, which were previously published in The New Yorker: Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters (1955) and Seymour: An Introduction (1959). Little, Brown republished them in this anthology in the year 1963. It was the first time the novellas had appeared in book-form. Anthologized together, they share the rank of third-bestselling novel in the United States for 1963.
Contents |
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters was originally published in the November 19, 1955 issue of The New Yorker.[1]
Like many of the other Glass family stories, Raise High is narrated by Buddy Glass, the second of the Glass brothers, and describes Buddy's visit on Army leave (during World War II, in 1942) to attend the wedding of his brother Seymour to Muriel, and tells of the events that follow the wedding's non-occurrence. The events that occur in this story set the stage for Seymour's suicide in 1948. Seymour is described through the eyes of Buddy—the only way readers can picture him—and through those of the would-be wedding's attendants. Included is the Matron of Honor, a gruff and burly woman whom Buddy meets in a car leaving the site of the wedding. The other passengers (who include the Matron of Honor's husband Robert; Muriel's father's deaf-mute uncle; and a middle-aged woman named Helen Silsburn) spend most of the car ride ignorant of Buddy's relation to Seymour.
Throughout the story the Matron of Honor criticizes Seymour's no-show at his wedding, and describes how smart Muriel's mother Rhea is and her theories on Seymour's behavior. The conversations and Buddy's subsequent retort illustrates Buddy's annoyance with judgemental and insensitive people, and also reveals his closeness to Seymour. At one point in the story, Buddy finds Seymour's diary and rescues it before anyone can see it. He brings it in the bathroom and reads the only direct, unfiltered dialogue from Seymour. In the later story "Hapworth 16, 1924" Buddy asserts the letter is reproduced "word for word", as if to assure the reader these are Seymour's thoughts and not his.
The title of the story is the first line of a message left by Boo Boo Glass for Seymour on the bathroom mirror of the family's apartment, which Buddy discovers towards the end of the story. The message itself begins with a line taken from Sappho's fragment LP 111:
Seymour: An Introduction was also originally published in The New Yorker[3], four years later than "Raise High".
As the title suggests, the story represents an attempt by Buddy Glass to introduce the reader to his brother Seymour, who had committed suicide in 1948. Buddy reminisces from his secluded home.
This story, like others concerning the Glass family, touches upon Zen Buddhism, haiku, and the Hindu philosophy of Vedanta.
The story is a stream of consciousness narrative, and reveals itself as semi-autobiographical.
The Glass family stories also include Franny and Zooey, "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut," "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "Down at the Dinghy," of which the last three are published in the collection Nine Stories.