Franny and Zooey

Franny and Zooey comprises a short story and a novella by JD Salinger, published together as a book in 1961; the short story and the novella originally appeared in The New Yorker in 1955 and 1957, respectively. The short story "Franny" serves as a prologue to the events of "Zooey".

Though nowhere near as popular or influential as The Catcher in The Rye, Franny and Zooey has a cult following. It has been widely suggested that The Royal Tenenbaums is a loose, unofficial adaptation of this book, due to the fact that both contain a dysfunctional, gifted family, one of which is voluntarily locked in a bathroom.

In case you're wondering, yes, Zooey Deschanel is named after the "Zooey" character, despite the latter actually being male.


 * Ambiguously Jewish: The Glass family
 * Big Screwed-Up Family: The Glass family is one due to Seymour's suicide and the fact the children were precociously bright and grew up famous.
 * Broken Bird: Franny copes by becoming incredibly cynical about everything until Zooey snaps her out of it.
 * Ivy League for Everyone: "Franny" takes place at Princeton during a game against Yale.
 * The Verse: Franny and Zooey, the later novellas Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction, a third of Salinger's Nine Stories, and Salinger's final published work, the rare short story "Hapworth 16, 1924", all feature the Glass family.