I reread this one nearly every month. It’s hard to talk about it without falling into hyperbole; I already called it “the Great American Novel” in another interview, even though it’s just seven pages long. What I’ll say is this: in those seven pages, Salinger offers a strikingly comprehensive portrait of living—and loving someone—with mental health struggles, precisely PTSD in this case. Despite the intense subject matter (and tragic ending), it’s not all doom and gloom: Salinger gives us some amusing zingers like “Miss Spiritual Tramp of 1948” and “Sex Is Fun—Or Hell.” (Obligatory fun fact, since this is where two of my worlds collide: the band Blur, an oft-cited inspiration of mine, originally wanted to name themselves Seymour after this story’s protagonist.)
First published in The New Yorker, January 1948. Anthologized in 55 Short Stories from the New Yorker, Simon & Schuster 1949 and collected in Salinger’s Nine Stories, Little, Brown 1953
A Personal Anthology 