A novel I read right through at speed, impatient with interruptions of my school girl schedule, burying my nose in the narrative of the coming-of-age of the expelled Princeton undergrad was J D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. I’ve gone back to it more than once and just before sitting down to writing this, I got lost in it again -just read compulsively. How and why? The narrative itself is interesting but it is the style of writing that just grips you - so conversational - almost slangy, so intimate, a relation of personal incidents, albeit apparently fictionalized, with such verve and speed.

The original

With the very first sentence, Salinger makes captive his reader. "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me and all the David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth". So empathy is engaged by the conversational style, interest aroused with the casual intimate tone and curiosity aroused by the ‘it’. What on earth happens to this character? And for goodness sake, what is IT?

A polite refusal to serve alcohol in a nightclub gets Holden Caulfield - THE catcher in the Rye - indignant while his being thwarted is justified. "‘I’m sorry Sir,’ he said, ‘but do you have some verification of your age? Your driver’s license, perhaps?’ I gave him this very cold stare, like he’d insulted the hell out of me, and asked him, ‘Do I look like I’m under twenty-one?"’ But Caulfield did not get to order a wine or beer. The young boy/man had to make do with Coke while the three girls he dances with are on alcoholic drinks and conveniently lets him pay the bill for even their earlier drinks.

With a style of writing like that, and incidents from true life, is it any surprise that this is one book almost impossible to put down?

The reason why I went back to my old Catcher, with yellowing pages and scratched cover, and had my nose buried in it magnetically again, is because I read about a case brought against an author by Salinger. Being utterly reclusive, he did not appear at the first hearing of the case but let his lawyer represent him.

J. D. Salinger wrote The Catcher in the Rye in 1951 and dedicated it to his mother. It sure must be autobiographical though the author classified it as fiction. He is known for his aloofness and guarding his privacy. He zealously prevented his book from being interpreted by others or taken over by the film industry. Now 90 and in firm, he is however fully aware of what’s going on. What’s going on is that a sort of sequel has been published but its publication in America has been stalled by him. His lawyers contend that "the new work is too derivative and that the characters in Catcher are protected by copyright". The judge too seems to agree. Deborah A Batts of the US District Court in Manhattan, said "It does seem to me that Holden Caulfield is quite delineated by words; that is a portrait by words. It would seem that Holden Caulfield is copyrighted." She also added that the book, if sufficiently different from Catcher, would come under fair use and therefore could be published in the US. It is already in print in Britain. The judge wanted ten days to consider the problem and issue a judgment as to whether the controversial book can, or cannot be published in the US.

The other

The author who has trespassed in J D Salinger’s literary domain and has been brought to Court by him is Swedish author Fredrik Colting. Using the pseudonym J D California he has written "60 years Later Coming Through the Rye " with a long subtitle: "An Unauthorized Fictional Examination of the Relationship Between J D Salinger and his Most Famous Character.

Colting’s American lawyer says his book is a critique that describes an aged Holden Caulfield - "Mr. C in the book is a lonely old man that depicts Mr. Salinger as a prisoner of his own achievements who is haunted by his famous creation." Supporting characters in Catcher surface in 60 Years Later. The teacher Mr. Spencer is in the new book, so also the young man’s kid sister, Phoebe, who in Catcher was 8 years old and in Bolting’s book is now an aged drug user suffering from dementia.

The lawyers for Bolting claim that this new book is a form of literary criticism of J D Salinger’s book since it provokes questions about Catcher. Mr. Salinger’s attorneys say the book has assumed the form of a sequel to Catcher. "They described and sold this book in order to trade on Catcher in the Rye."

It is interesting to know the judgment as to whether the book can be published in the States or not. If the latter, then sale of the book published in Britain too will be banned in the States, I suppose.

Another great and its disappointing
follow-up

Sequels there have been to famous books. Gone with the Wind has a sequel written by Alexandra Ripley in 1991 titled Scarlett: the sequel to Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. It cannot hold a candle to the original creation, written in a cold basement apartment on Peachtree Street, Atlanta, where the best scenes in GWTW are set. Burning Atlanta with a disheveled Scarlett being rescued by Rhett Butler has seared itself in our memory of books.

If you remember, GWTW ends with Scarlett seated on the steps of the mansion she shares with Rhett who presumes her love for Ashley Wilkes is still on. He says he is leaving her. With that stunning pronouncement she realizes that Ashley is a shadow compared to Rhett. The death of Melanie Wilkes dries up her fascination with that woman’s husband and opens her eyes to her folly. She won’t beg of Rhett to reconsider his decision; she won’t cry. She promises to herself that she will go to Tara, implying Tara will solve her problems.

The sequel starts with the funeral of Melanie. Scarlett tells herself: "This will be over soon and then I can go home to Tara." The long novel ends with a happily-ever-after coming together of the tempestuous Scarlett, no longer young, and the dashing Rhett, now a doting father. Don’t ask me what happens between beginning and end of the sequel. I have not, and will not read it. I cannot spoil my memories of GWTW.

To write and publish a sequel needs authorization by either or both the author and publisher. The done thing seems to be to get the publisher’s or the estate of the dead writer’s permission even if copyright period is over. The publication of unauthorized sequels seems to be an infringement of copyright. In the case of Catcher in the Rye and 60 Years Later Coming through the Rye is not that clear cut. It is not a sequel the second author says, and there is plenty room given for even infringement to Copyright Law through the clause of Fair Use.