Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Book Club: Franny & Zooey, by J.D. Salinger

Anyone who has survived a high school English class probably knows that J.D. Salinger doesn't think much of 'society.' His anger and alienation made the pages of Catcher in the Rye practically warm to the touch, and those same emotions that make the book so appealing to teenagers tend to distract readers who are more comfortable with their place in the world.
For most of its pages, Franny and Zooey strikes a similar chord. Franny Glass can't stand her Ivy League boyfriend, her mediocre classmates, or her pretentious professors. Her spiritual crisis mirrors Holden Caulfield's, but without the vitriol. Her struggle is of frustration and despair, rather than pure anger.
And if that was all there was to the book, it wouldn't be particularly interesting or worth reading. Although I suppose gender theorists could build careers on dissecting the differences between Holden and Franny. This time, though, we are saved from our crushing angst and alienation by the emergence of Franny's brother Zooey in the second chapter. (The book is divided into two eponymous chapters, each of which was originally published separately in The New Yorker.) Far too unreasonable to be called a voice of reason, Zooey rides an unique wave of knowledge and arrogance that changes the tenor of the book. He gradually leads Franny - and the reader along with her - to a satisfactory spiritual (as opposed to religious) answer to Franny's yearning, and in doing so fosters a sense of optimism I haven't previously seen in the reclusive Salinger.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Book Club: Gang Leader for a Day, by Sudhir Venkatesh

*Note: The author of this book, Sudhir Venkatesh, has a very long name. There are way too many letters in Venkatesh for me to type it over and over. In fact, my fingers are exhausted from the three times I've already typed it. Therefore, the author will be referred to as S.V. from here on out.*

One of the most popular chapters in Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner's book Freakonomics centers on the economics of a Chicago street gang. So you can imagine people were excited when they got word of Gang Leader for a Day, written by the man responsible for the studies profiled in that chapter. The book is a chance for this self-styled 'rogue sociologist' to take us deeper into a world many know nothing about. (In fairness, the whole 'rogue sociologist' thing could be a marketing ploy - Freakonomics' subtitle refers to a 'rogue economist.' I, for one, am somewhat alarmed at the sudden rise in rogue -ists running around the streets of our nation. Someone should do something.)

And, as an expansion on that same Freakonomics chapter, I suppose S.V.'s book is OK. There are many more pages to work with here, so we get more time, more characters, and more anecdotes. But I had several problems with the book that kept me from enjoying it as a much as I wanted to.

Power. No matter how embedded he was or felt, S.V. was not black. He was not poor. He neither lived in nor grew up in the projects. And, unlike the residents of Robert Taylor Homes, he could leave whenever he wanted. Even when he didn't want to leave, the gang members would often shield him from especially brutal or sensitive events. Is any of this particularly S.V.'s fault? No. We're all stuck with our own perspective. Forgive the moment of solipsism, but no one can ever truly transcend the blessing/curse of subjectivity. S.V., though, is so far out of his element that it feels like anthropomorphizing when he attempts to talk about people's motives. He dehumanizes in his very attempt to humanize.

Numbers. Maybe I'm a geek. Maybe I would have been better off reading his dissertation. But Gang Leader for a Day seemed surprisingly low on data. This is a book of stories, not information.

Motive. On multiple occasions, S.V. wonders why he is studying this community, and what he hopes to get out of his research. Even with these doubts, we see him crossing lines to get what he needs. He indulges residents' delusions of grandeur by allowing them to believe he's writing about them individually, rather than the community as a whole. He betrays people's confidence when he thinks it will help his research. Eventually, he justifies his actions by deciding that, like many of the buildings residents, he's a hustler. To make matters worse, that isn't even his own conclusion, but something told to him by one of the residents, and he clings to the idea like a life saver.

As I said earlier, I really wanted to like this book. Maybe I went in with unrealistic expectations, but I left feeling hollow and disappointed, like I had just eaten a candy bar when what I really wanted was something salty. Don't get me wrong - S.V. did something fascinating in exploring the lives of a hidden segment of society. But Gang Leader doesn't do it any justice.

Personally, I might have liked the book better if he had gotten his ass kicked at least once for his impudence, his naivete and his condescension, a la the late Dr. Hunter S. Thompson in Hell's Angels.