Three Early Stories

Three Early Stories is a slim volume containing three short stories by reclusive American author, J.D.Salinger, and is the first book by this author to be published in fifty years. Each of the stories in this collection has been previously published in magazines (Story and University of Kansas City Review), some years before his controversial bestseller The Catcher in the Rye was first published The Young Folks features a conversation between a bitchy woman and a rather distracted man at a cocktail party. It has the distinction of being the first story Salinger ever had published (at the age of twenty-one) and contains gems like “They arose simultaneously. Edna was taller than Jameson and Jameson was shorter than Edna” Go See Eddie features an animated conversation between a brother and sister in which the brother is critical of his sister’s adulterous relationship and insists she take a job he has lined up for her. Once A Week Won’t Kill You features conversations between a young man going to war and his wife, and later with a beloved aunt. Of the three stories, this is definitely the most polished, no doubt due to its later publication date. The first two stories have a decidedly unfinished feel, as if they are an extract from a longer work; the third story, less so, but it would also benefit from an expansion that is, now, of course impossible. Nonetheless, all three stories have his distinctive style, and this book will be an essential acquisition for Salinger fans.