I read The Salinger Contract on the beach in St. Lucia when I was there in March.

…it was great.

The premise is that the narrator of the book is listening to the story of an author he knows and respects (the narrator previously worked in publishing, then academia, and is now a stay at home husband who takes care of the kids). The author, who he knows for years and who he believes for no reason other than that he trusts him, tells a fantastic story of how he is hired to write a unique, one of a kind manuscript for a very rich man who sets a very strict set of conditions on what the author is and isn’t allowed to do while writing this book.

It turns out that this rich man has a number of these unique manuscripts from many authors who, like Salinger, disappeared or became recluses, whatever. The consequences of not following these conditions set in the contract are dire, but the author is paid a ton of money.

Anyway, this was a literary thriller about writing literary thrillers. It was fantastic. The story unwinds over a period of months where the author the narrator is talking to becomes increasingly paranoid and is increasingly trying to escape his contract and (for various reasons) breaks the conditions of his contract.

There are more twists and turns than this, obviously, but I loved it and read the whole thing in two days.

For some reason, I’ve always been interested in books about books. Lost Shakespeare plays are a particular favorite of mine, and THIS story, is everything The Book of Air and Shadows (by a different author that I read years ago) was not. I was so excited about that book, and it was terrible. I went into this book with the idea that it probably wouldn’t be any good, but it was excellent.

It was interesting. The author of the book inserted himself into the story as the narrator. It was confusing, at first, as to whether or not this was semi-autobiographical. In fact, the whole thing was an exercise in unreliable narration. It was fun. You really had no idea about whether or not the story the author was telling was true. (The author within the story, not the author who wrote the book). The narrator himself doesn’t know at first if the story is true. The story being told to him is ridiculously fantastic, and it’s unclear at first why he and the author are even friends in the first place. The author does count the narrator as a friend – his only friend – and the narrator doesn’t fully grasp the nature of their relationship.

The narrator himself is morally ambiguous. He fully admits that he is a practiced liar who would do just about anything for the right amount of money, although he does seem to have a conscience. He probably wouldn’t kill anyone, but he definitely wouldn’t mind betraying a buddy for the right amount of cash. His family is in dire financial straits, and he maintains he’ll do what he has to to help them, but considering the way he talks about himself, the reader can assume he’s not really that noble, and that he’d do it anyway, even if his family wasn’t in a poor place financially.

I highly recommend The Salinger Contract. It was fast paced, not too long, and a gripping story about a pretty good guy fighting for his life and marriage and career, against a seemingly omniscient man with endless resources. It’s especially good if you’re into literature and are a nerd…so, if you’re like me.

Tagged: authors: adam langer, books: the salinger contract, genre: thriller