Although J.D. Salinger has written many short stories, The Catcher in the Rye is Salinger's only novel and also his most notable work. The novel is the culmination of themes that appeared throughout a number of Salinger's short stories, however, some of which form the basis of individual chapters in The Catcher in the Rye. Vincent serves as the basis for D.B. Caulfield, Holden's older brother in the novel, and is the protagonist in a number of stories by Salinger. This unpublished story also details how Kenneth became angry when an adult calls Holden crazy and how Holden complains about hypocritical adults at his summer camp.
Additional stories fill in detail left out of The Catcher in the Rye.
This conversation ends with a reference to her wanting to keep a child from going over a cliff, an idea that Holden references in The Catcher in the Rye when he discusses his ideal situation with Phoebe. In this story, however, Holden expresses greater regret for his expulsion from Pentey,' even lamenting that he will never again play games of football on Saturday evenings with his friends from Pentey. The basis of The Catcher in the Rye as a series of unrelated short stories as well as Salinger's affection for that form explains the pacing and relative lack of narrative continuity in the novel. No setting nor character recurs for more than one or two consecutive chapters. The first chapters of the novel, which are all set at Pencey, are the only ones that sustain the same characters and setting for an extended period.