Go back to high school.

Let me be clear. I am not someone who looks back on my high school days as the glory days; I didn't absolutely hate high school, but I certainly wouldn't call those years the best of my life. But the death of J.D. Salinger yesterday reinforced a recent realization for me - we could all benefit from going back and re-reading some of the books we had to read in high school.

I'm assuming that all of us have at least one text that we resented having to read during our school days. Heck, I was the girl who fell for William Wordsworth instead of the quarterback of the football team (who WAS the quarterback of the football team?), and even I felt this way about many assignments.

All I remembered from my American literature survey course's treatment of The Scarlet Letter was my teacher's little wind-up doll that we pretended was the Reverend Dimsdale by putting a little whip in his hand. (What could be more interesting to a 15 year old than self-flagellation? Don't answer that . . .) I re-read The Scarlet Letter at Bread Loaf two summers ago, and was astonished by what a tidy, perfectly crafted little novel it was. (And I promise I'm not just promoting Nathaniel Hawthorne because he went to Bowdoin . . .)

Similarly, I've forced myself to sit down and re-read Heart of Darkness this month in preparation for a course I hope to take this summer - again, I've been pleasantly surprised to find this an enjoyable undertaking. Not only do I have a greater appreciation for the influence this book had on colonial criticism, but I'm also truly enjoying the story and the language - Joseph Conrad, I owe you an apology.

But Salinger, Salinger is different. You'll of course find cranks that claim they didn't like ANYTHING they read in high school (I question whether they actually read any of it), but I would wager that the majority of us that were taught Catcher in the Rye enjoyed Catcher in the Rye. If enjoy is too strong a word, then I would hope folks would at least admit that something in the novel (likely the snarky adolescent voice of Holden Caufield on the very first page) resonated with them. This book provided us with a shared experience, a shared window for looking at another's painfully earnest high school experience and a mirror for thinking about our own.

And so I have homework for anyone reading this. Take the time this weekend to dip into something you may have felt was shoved down your throat in high school, or even something you may have liked and deserves another look. If you don't have anything handy, try some of these Salinger stories originally published by the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/backissues/2010/01/postscript-j-d-salinger.html Curl up with a cup of coffee, an open mind, and give it an hour. You may find there was something to your high school curriculum after all.