num_pages: 252
description: Poignant keenly observed and irresistibly a memoir about literary New York in the late nineties a pre-digital world on the cusp of vanishing where a young woman finds herself entangled with one of the last great figures of the century.At twenty-three after leaving graduate school to pursue her dreams of becoming a poet Joanna Rakoff moves to New York City and takes a job as assistant to the storied literary agent for J. D. Salinger. She spends her days in a plush wood-paneled office where Dictaphones and typewriters still reign and old-time agents doze at their desks after martini lunches. At night she goes home to the tiny threadbare Williamsburg apartment she shares with her socialist boyfriend. Precariously balanced between glamour and poverty surrounded by titanic personalities and struggling to trust her own artistic instinct Rakoff is tasked with answering Salingers voluminous fan mail. But as she reads the candid heart-wrenching letters from his readers around the world she finds herself unable to type out the agencys decades-old form response. Instead drawn inexorably into the emotional world of Salingers devotees she abandons the template and begins writing back. Over the course of the year she finds her own voice by acting as Salingers on her own dangerous and liberating terms.Rakoff paints a vibrant portrait of a bright hungry young woman navigating a heady and longed-for world trying to square romantic aspirations with burgeoning self-awareness the idea of a life with life itself. Charming and deeply moving filled with electrifying glimpses of an American literary icon My Salinger Year is the coming-of-age story of a talented writer. Above all it is a testament to the universal power of books to shape our lives and awaken our true selves.
language: English
title: My Salinger Year
publisher: Knopf