''About eleven o'clock, Lucille Henderson, observing that her party was soaring at the proper height, and just having been smiled at by Jack Delroy, forced herself to glance over in the direction of Edna Phillips, who since eight o'clock had been sitting in the big red chair, smoking cigarettes and yodeling hellos and wearing a very bright eye which young men were not bothering to catch.''
The 66-word opener takes up most of the first page of this large-print pocket-sized collection of stories published in magazines in the 1940s, but never in book form.
I found the sentence so arresting in part because, when writing as a journalist, one is always taught brevity is of the essence, particularly in the opening paragraph.
Pick apart the lengthy sentence, however, and there is not one extraneous word. Analyse it further and it is clear in one take Salinger has introduced the reader to three characters, illustrated the females' personalities, set the scene, conveyed the bustle and social tension within it, marked the passage of time, and done it all in richly evocative language (the deliciously ''soaring'' party and the brash and breezy Edna of the ''very bright eye'').
It is a fascinating glimpse into the young writer who would go on to pen the wonderful classic The Catcher in the Rye, and it is a masterclass in the use of language.
In the other two stories in the collection (Go See Eddie and Once a Week Won't Kill You) Salinger unpicks more relationships, examining respectively the dynamics between a brother and sister, and a husband heading off to war and leaving his wife and aunt. All the stories provide short but unsettling snapshots in time, where what is left largely unsaid looms largest. The overwhelming feelings the reader is left with are nostalgia and regret.
Salinger's published works are relatively few; the last goes back 50 years. He lived out of the public eye, and died in 2010. While unauthorised early material was subsequently released online, the rights to these three stories were obtained by the Devault-Graves Agency, which initially published them. There remains the tantalising possibility more previously unpublished works may be released in time.
Helen Speirs is ODT books editor.
