the escape artist by thomas beller
ny times sunday book review
"Beller offers a uniquely literary inquiry into the combatively reclusive and epically blocked author of The Catcher in the Rye and beloved short story collections…A fine and stirring portrait of a haunted literary artist.” —Booklist (starred review)
“Beller...focuses on the minutiae of Salinger’s existence, the small details that Shields' biography skimmed over.” —Lit Reactor
“Funny…entertaining.” —Newsday
“Beller writes with intelligence and insight” —The Los Angeles Times
“Irresistible…endearing…lyrical and precise… J.D. Salinger is the story of the resonance of its subject, but it is also the story of a generous, humorous, sensitive writer, which is to say Thomas Beller. Not much escapes him.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Rather than writing a straightforward biography, Beller (How to Be a Man) offers here an exceptionally well-researched, deeply felt, and thoughtful exploration of the elusive author’s history, in which he probes Salinger’s life and prickly familial ties, and their manifestation in his timeless characters and settings.” —Publishers Weekly
“In this genre-bending nonfiction delight, a Tulane prof and contributor to The New Yorker tells a story of literary obsession, deftly folding a slim Salinger bio into a memoir of his own pursuit of the elusive literary icon.” —The New Orleans Times-Picayune