There are many characters that I love and that are complex and interesting, but my favorite is Seymour Glass.
If you didn’t like The Catcher in the Rye, you still might like Salinger’s other three books: Franny and Zooey, Nine Stories, and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: an Introduction. They (mostly) center around the Glass family, a bunch of pretentious, intelligent New Yorkers (sound real likable, huh…?). But really, they do turn out to be interesting and likable– and Seymour is my favorite. He’s the oldest of seven children, described as a “spiritual savant.” You first meet him in Franny and Zooey, then go on to learn more bits and pieces about him in Nine Stories. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: an Introduction is one of my favorite books of all time— with as few spoilers as possible, I’ll just say that the second half, Seymour, is a novella “written” by Seymour’s brother following his (Seymour’s) death. Buddy, Seymour’s brother, takes up the whole story trying to write a memoir/biography about Seymour’s life, struggling to put into words who his brother was. He stops and restarts and goes on tangents, and the whole thing is just a beautiful portrayal of grief and love and the unknowable nature of human beings. You leave the book feeling like you know Seymour through his brother’s eyes, fully aware that, just like Buddy, you really don’t know Seymour at all— and you feel the loss of his life and his individual nature acutely. He’s an extremely complex, sympathetic, interesting character, and he’ll make you appreciate all the people you know well, and who know you.
Curious about the rest of my answers? Find a list of them here.
