Jerome Charyn

This is a very creative approach to examining the development and eventual artistry of J.D. Salinger. The book is a historical fiction work on Salinger's life in the U.S. military during WWII and the possible effects of that time period on his own eventual publications. The book seems well researched and does a very good job with character development, introspection, and pacing. The story by itself is an interesting read with a fascinating plot but challenges the reader further by giving show more them food for thought at what might lay behind the mind of the reclusive Salinger when he began his own writing career. show less

4.5 Eye-catching cover considering Dickinson's era and her reputation for being a recluse. I liked the anomaly of it and liked the book even more. The author completely captures her voice and intersperses little bits of her poetry in everyday observation/conversation as if that were her inspiration. It was fun to pick them out, where I could. His extensive research really broadened her life beyond her alcove and he portrayed moods beyond the traditional shyness that gets attached to her, show more letting her life and verse "delight and disturb." Though he sticks to the facts of her family, he also fictionalizes and adds in some characters that heighten the drama and give Emily more spirit, for example, he creates a handyman at Mt. Holyoke whose tattoo captivates her and leads her into trouble with the headmistress for visiting him unchaperoned. Charyn depicts her as quite sensual in all regards, having ill-advised flirtations with various men, some below her station. As for the Dickinson family, he nails her weird relationship with her father - her Master in many of her writings, ("My life it seems, was one long letter to Edward Dickinson, Esq.) but also her sister-in-law's dominance, her younger sister's unwavering loyalty, and her mother's ineffectiveness. What is also accurate is her sheer genius - her 'freakishness' is often the result of her intelligence and creativity being far beyond the capacity of those she kept company with. She refers to her inspiration to write as 'lightning' which stuns those who come in contact with it, but also drains her of energy. She was a sponge for all she saw and heard, internalized it, and then turned it into poetry. Once source of influence was this snippet of sermon: "If you be a bricklayer, then lay your bricks with music in your soul. If you be a doctor or nurse, then heal with your whole heart. If you be a poet, then delve not into mysteries and dreams, with cobwebs over your eyes, nor pity us with wild plaints, but investigate a squirrel's flight and the path of a torpedo. The Lord's perfection can be found in the meekest animal and the mightiest machine. And we must rejoice in this world of ours. Heaven must not take us away from the here and the now. God revels in the work we do." (140) This is a worthwhile read for any ED fans out there. show less

Berlin, 1943. Amid Germany’s war against the world and murder of European Jewry, there are many secrets dangerous to know, not least that Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of military intelligence, has a private agenda. Whenever he can, he hides Jews, mostly German Jews, of whom a few thousand may still be found in the capital.
Most are tenuously protected by marriage to Christians; others live underground in ghettos that even the SS doesn’t bother to penetrate. But the biggest secret is that show more Canaris uses his best agent, the widely celebrated Cesare, to try to make sure these hunted people stay safe.

Er, wait. The head of the Abwehr rescues Jews? His best agent’s persona is a household word?

While floating through the dream that is this novel, once or twice I had to check the historical record, just for grounding. Concerning one particularly stunning instance, which I can’t divulge because it would give too much away, I found that Charyn reports history as it happened. So however strange Cesare may be, the truth may be even stranger. Does it matter?

No. And there’s plenty of powerful fiction here, starting with the protagonist. Cesare’s real name is Erik Holdermann; six years earlier, in 1937, he rescued a tramp from a severe beating by a group of hoodlums. The tramp was Canaris, and that made Erik’s fortune.
But what he does with it is something else. Cesare takes his sobriquet from The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, an expressionist film of 1920 in which Conrad Veidt (remember him as Major Strasser, in Casablanca?) plays a somnambulist slave who sleeps in a coffin and murders people while in a dream state. And just as Dr. Caligari explored the horrors that occur between sleep and wakefulness, consciousness and oblivion, Charyn wants to show you the nightmare that built and characterizes the Third Reich, not least of which is its citizens’ refusal to face their murderous reality.

This warped image describes life from the ground up, at least for a certain privileged class. Every form of entertainment attacked as “degenerate” by the regime exists within blocks of Gestapo headquarters, tolerated by the authorities, many of whom enjoy its frenzies.
Such dualities apply everywhere. Cesare’s great, obsessive love, Lisalein von Hecht, the half-Jewish daughter of a banker, plays many roles, or appears to — his ally and protector, his betrayer, wife of a Party muckamuck, lover of a cabaret chanteuse, communist, rescuer of Jews. Her father helped bankroll Hitler because he feared the Reds more than the Nazis and assumed the vulgar corporal would be easily managed.

Even Cesare himself, though not Jewish, was looked after by Jewish prostitutes as a young orphan; and when he must penetrate an inner sanctum he can’t enter any other way, despite his reputed shape-shifting skills, he wears a black uniform of the SS. To the Jews, there’s no doubt about his identity: a golem.

With such portrayals and references — throw in Kafka and Melville —Cesare is a literary novel par excellence. But it’s also a disturbing, hallucinatory thriller, with as many plot twists and double crosses as the number of angels capable of dancing on the head of a pin.

Throughout, the author immerses you in the hell that was the Third Reich. As with other thrillers, there’s plenty of sex, but it’s mostly desperate, typical of German activities then, rather than erotic. At times, it’s hard to tell whether female characters are mere sex objects (sometimes for each other), or whether Charyn’s trying to turn James Bond on his perfect, Casanova head.

What I do know is that Cesare possesses the reader, in a howl of pain and madness. Yet I didn’t feel suffocated, only glad I could close the cover and realize I wasn’t living inside it. And with this novel, Charyn has shown me what fiction can do. show less

In high-school the first novels I ever competed reading were The Catcher in The Rye and Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine. For different reasons both novels left me transformed - opened my eyes to something entirely different. They revealed to me words and thoughts that felt like they could be my own but also simultaneously beyond myself. I have a deep love for the work of Bradbury and Salinger and it is the mystery around Salinger that I find appealing. So, it was a pleasure to read Jerome show more Charyn's novel Sergeant Salinger that multiplies and intensifies the mystery and uncertainty around Salinger. I love how the novel does not seek to give a clear-er picture of Salinger and closes out with him struggling to create his to-be classic works. Sergeant Salinger is for me an expertly conceived novel written to portray a man seeking to create art while struggling with life and suffering from ptsd. Suffering from shell-shock and heart break. As ever Bellevue literary press is publishing work that is illuminating and challenging and most importantly literary and beautiful.

I loved this novel and highly recommend it. show less