This being one of my husband's all-time favorite books, I really wanted to love it more than I did. The writing is clearly brilliant, the characters are some of the most vivid I have ever read, and the heavily italicized dialogue had wonderful rhythms. But the themes...good god (no pun intended), the themes! Too much religious mumbo jumbo substituting for actual--for lack of a better word--stuff happening. And I was relieved to note after a little research that even John Updike in 1961 thought there was the suggestion, intended or not, that Franny was pregnant, (NY Times) and yet, clearly this never gets addressed in the second story, though I kept waiting for it. Perhaps I'm too much of a heathen to really understand this book, but the spiritual themes felt terribly forced on otherwise interesting characters. ( )

Nine Stories may be his greatest work, but this is my favorite of Salinger’s books. The religious themes can be a little heavy-handed, but these two short stories about Franny and Zooey Glass, two young adults trying to recover from being precocious children, are about as well-written as fiction can be. ( )

This is one of Salinger's best. I absolutely love his stories about the Glass family. Seymour and Franny are my favorites. ( )

Franny and Zooey are sister and brother, who grew up in quite a large, educated and eccentric family. The two chapter story pivots around Franny's interest in a religious book that she found in her elder brothers' room, the 'Jesus Prayer' that she is saying and her near nervous breakdown.

I loved chapter one of this book and even though chapter two focused largely on religion it was still interesting. The further explanation about the use of theatre in the novel, as described in the Yale lecture was also thought provoking. ( )

A friend's daughter, a prolific reader and 13-year-old, read "Catcher in the Rye" and immediately checked out the rest of Salinger from the library. "Franny and Zooey" is on her top 10 favorites of all time. And with Salinger in the news, I finally picked up this book. While I still prefer "Catcher," I liked this one too. I hope he has a safe full of manuscripts! ( )