Three Early Stories

By: J.D. Salinger

Narrated by: Mike Dennis

A young and ambitious writer named Jerome David Salinger set his goals very high very early in his career. He almost desperately wished to publish his early stories in The New Yorker magazine, the pinnacle, he felt, of America’s literary world. But such was not to be for several long years and the length of one long world war.

The New Yorker, whose tastes in literary matters were and remain notoriously prim and fickle, was not quite ready for this brash and over-confident newcomer with the cynical worldview and his habit of slangy dialogue. But other magazines were quick to recognize a new talent, a fresh voice at a time when the world verged on madness. Story magazine, an esteemed and influential small-circulation journal devoted exclusively to the art of the short story and still active and respected today, was the first publication to publish the name J.D. Salinger and the story "The Young Folks" in 1940, an impressive view of New York’s cocktail society and two young people talking past one another, their conversation almost completely meaningless and empty.

Three Early Stories is the first legitimately published book by J.D. Salinger in more than 50 years. Devault-Graves Digital Editions, a publisher that specializes in reprinting the finest in American period literature, is proud to bring you this anthology by one of America’s most innovative and inspiring authors.

©2014 The Devault-Graves Agency (P)2014 The Devault-Graves Agency

Once you heard the first story you've heard'em all

Would you try another book from J.D. Salinger and/or Mike Dennis?

Sure. He has a good voice.

Has Three Early Stories turned you off from other books in this genre?

No.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

When i heard the first story, which is really well done and I got into the characters it was disappointing to go to the next story and hear a different story with the same character voice. It really detracts from the story. If I was reading it I might have enjoyed that more.

Did Three Early Stories inspire you to do anything?

Write this review?

Wonderful

Great stories and great narration. Listen while in the car, it makes your trip go quicker.

Not very special

To me, the stories don’t stand out from his other work. They’re probably only interesting to Salinger completists. Also, the stories are not broken out as separate chapters. I don’t understand why short story audiobooks do this!

Wistful, deep stories of early Catcher in The Rye

Where does Three Early Stories rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This audiobook ranks high among my many, many listened to books for its vintage nature combined with the great narration of Mike Dennis. Listening to the book, I felt like I was in a black and white smoky room with characters dressed from the 40's.

What did you like best about this story?

I read Salinger in high school, and we spent a lot of time studying the deeper meaning behind his characters. Although the stories were short, you could hear Salinger's intent for the characters from his rich language.

Have you listened to any of Mike Dennis’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not but love his melodious voice and have one in the docket ready to listen to!

If you could take any character from Three Early Stories out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Yikes! I found the men abrasive or scary and the women weak.

Fantastic peek into the early Salinger

This book was an excellent peek into the mind of an early JD Salinger, man who always sought to find his voice is a writer, and had a sense of his own impact. The prose is lucid and conversational, fantastic listen! For those of you who like Salinger, anyway.