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Author J.D. Salinger booklist (click here)

Book Review By alisa
A Perfect Day for Bananafish by J.D. Salinger

A Perfect Day for Bananafish is about a young girl and a boy who both run away together to a beach resort in New York. Muriel (the girl) is perfectly sane and acts like any other normal girl would; very interested in self-looks and lives a carefree life.

However, Sybil (the boy) is mentally ill and depressed.
Sybil is on the beach and is flirting with a girl, seeming like a normal person. But he begins to scare the girl by saying the most random, most wierd things such as what a bananafish is. She runs away from him and depresses Sybil even more. On his way back to the hotel room, he thinks that a woman is staring at his extremely pale feet when she was actually staring at the floor. He yells at her and she denies staring at his feet, which causes him to yell at her even more and calls her a sneak. Then, Sybil goes into his hotel room and shoots himself.


Plot & Themes
Tone of book? - depressed
Time/era of story - 1930's-1950's
Kids growing up/acting up? Yes
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Something wrong upstairs/downstairs? - mental illness

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status:
Age: - 20's-30's
Ethnicity/Nationality
Unusual characteristics:

Main Adversary
Identity: - none

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 6 ()
United States Yes
The US: - Northeast

Writing Style
Amount of dialog - significantly more descript than dialog
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