My Salinger Year: NOW A MAJOR FILM

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

The much-loved, irresistibly funny memoir of literary New York which was an international bestseller and enchanted readers around the world now a major film starring Sigourney Weaver and Margaret Qualley, My New York Year Gripping and funny Observer Like a literary The Devil Wears Prada ... An irresistible read Harpers Bazaar 'Irresistible' Sunday Times 'Spellbinding' Guardian After leaving graduate school to pursue her dream of becoming a poet, Joanna Rakoff takes a job as assistant to the storied literary agent for J. D. Salinger. Precariously balanced between poverty and glamour, she spends her days in a plush, wood-paneled office - where Dictaphones and typewriters still reign and agents doze after three-martini lunches - and then goes home to her threadbare Brooklyn apartment and her socialist boyfriend. Rakoff is tasked with processing Salingers voluminous fan mail, but as she reads the heart-wrenching letters from around the world, she becomes reluctant to send the agencys form response and impulsively begins writing back. The results are both humorous and moving, as Rakoff, while acting as the great writers voice, begins to discover her own.

Reviews

Hard to put down ... Demands sympathy, admiration, and attention ... Irresistible * SUNDAY TIMES *
Intimate ... elegant ... graceful * Sunday Telegraph *
So gripping and funny, you feel sure she had only to twitch her nose to be back there * Observer *
Spellbinding ... You dont have to be a Salinger fan to fall under Rakoffs spell; Im not and I did * Guardian *
A warm, witty, occasionally sly piece of storytelling ... An affectionate love letter to a first job in an industry that in just 20 years has changed beyond recognition * Woman & Home *
In prose that is clear, precise and evocative, Rakoff renders her people and places touchably real * Independent *
Every young person who moves to New York with creative ambitions should read Joanna Rakoffs wonderful memoir ... As transporting as the best novels -- Adelle Waldman, author of The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P
Anyone who has ever dreamed of a life in books will find much to love in Joanna Rakoffs memoir ... Funny and knowing, its both an idiosyncratic tribute to Salingers writing and an affirmation of the power of books * Metro *
A memoir that manages to be dreamlike but sharp, poignant but unsentimental. Here is a book Im going to have to insist you read immediately -- Maggie Shipstead, author of Seating Arrangements
A charming coming-of-age memoir that fizzes with youthful energy and bookish insight * Good Housekeeping *
Joanna Rakoffs memoir of a New York publishing life, a fantastic book about being young and alone in a big city * Observer Books of the Year *
Think of her as the even more bookish Lena Dunham with a bit of Mad Men claustrophobia thrown in * Grazia *
A year spent in the orbit of a great writer gives rise to an elegant memoir * Sunday Telegraph *
Anyone who can remember the fear of feeling hopelessly out of their depth in their first job should get a kick out of My Salinger Year ... Rakoffs prose is precise and often amusing * Evening Standard *
A beautifully written tribute to the way things were at the edge of the digital revolution, and to the evergreen power of literature * Chicago Tribune *
An affecting coming-of-age memoir. . . . Rakoff wisely and deftly weaves her Salinger story into a broader, more universal tale about finding ones bearings during a pivotal transitional year into real adulthood * Washington Post *
Charming ... Glamorous ... Rakoff does a marvelous job of capturing a cultural moment ... What is most admirable is [her] critical intelligence and generosity of spirit * Boston Globe *
The loneliness of life after college [is] perfectly explained ... Theres something Salingeresque about her book: its a vivid story of innocence lost * Entertainment Weekly *
My Salinger Year describes its authors trip down a metaphorical rabbit hole back in 1996. She arrived not in Wonderland, but a place something like it, a New York City firm she calls only the Agency ... An outright tribute to the enduring power of J.D. Salingers work * Salon *
A breezy memoir of being a bright young assistant in the mid-1990s ... Salinger himself makes a cameo appearance The archaic charms of the Agency are comically offset by its refusal to acknowledge the Internet age * New York Times Book Review *

Author Bio

Joanna Rakoff is a poet and the author of the novel A Fortunate Age, which won the Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction by Emerging Writers, was a New York Times Editors' Pick, a winner of the Elle Readers' Prize and a San Francisco Chronicle bestseller. As a journalist and critic, she has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Vogue, Time Out and O:The Oprah Magazine. The BBC produced a radio documentary following her as she tracked down the writer of her favourite Salinger fan letter. She has degrees from Columbia University, University College London and Oberlin College. Joanna Rakoff lives in Boston. joannarakoff.com