j. d. salinger

Do middle school kids these days argue about books? I vividly recall arguments in the cafeteria with 8th-grade friends about The Catcher in the Rye, between those of us who identified with Holden Caulfield and those who couldn't stand him. But it was Salinger's Nine Stories that soon became my literary bible. Then there was Franny and Zooey. But, again, Nine Stories is the book that continues to resonate. Was I more surprised yesterday to read that J.D. Salinger had died or that he had died at 91?