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Author J.D. Salinger booklist (click here)

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

In the book, 'A Perfect Day for Bananafish', Seymour Glass has returned from World War II a little delusional, depressed, and maybe a little bit crazy. Muriel, his wife, is more interested in herself than her husband, and keeps to her own in her hotel room while they are on vacation. Muriel's family is concerned about Seymour and their daughter, as he has been calling her odd names and behaving badly in public.
The story shifts to where Seymour is laying on the beach alone, and is very pale and covered up. A little girl named Sybil comes up to him and begins talking, they seem to already know each other. Sybil is concerned with whether or not Seymour likes another little girl better than her since she had been sitting with him in the hotel lobby on the piano bench while he played. Seymour reassures her and tells her a story of the bananafish and that they should go into the water to look for them. She is floating on a raft and claims that she spots one, Seymour describes how bananafish can eat seventy bananas in the hole they swim into, but they die because they become too fat to fit back through the hole afterwards.
   Seymour returns to the hotel and feels as if a woman is staring at his feet, she says she is not, but it puts him on edge because he feels as if his feet are normal and not worth staring at. He enters his hotel room where Muriel, his wife, is sleeping on a twin bed by herself, and he pulls out a gun and shoots himself in the head.


Plot & Themes
Tone of book? - depressed
Time/era of story - 1930's-1950's
Internal struggle/realization? Yes
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Battle with a psychiatrist Yes
Brain/Body disability? - 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? - 4 ()
United States Yes
The US: - Southeast - Deep South
Misc setting

Writing Style
Amount of dialog - significantly more dialog than descript
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