De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period (1952)

After reading a lot of messages surrounding the death of J.D. Salinger, I felt compelled reading something of him. I've asked for the collection Nine Stories for my birthday, have read it and even though all those stories are exceptionally well written, I wanted to blog about the one that impressed me the most: De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period*.

The impressive thing for me was this main character, who is so committed and ambitious about everything for art, but so lonesome in an institute that is run by these two Japanese clerks with whom he doesn't seem to connect at all on a personal level, suddenly gets his most inspired moments by this piece of art of a student (who is nun) has sent him. He tries to make her explore her talents and pursuit a career with her art by writing her a long letter.

All those differences and (inner) conflicts make this a real jewel of a story. I couldn't be happier with such a birthday present. I love my girlfriend.

* The word "blue" was translated to the dutch translation of "grey", probably because the translator felt this was more apropriate assuming it was meant like "feeling blue". However, since the main character is telling stories about Picasso all the time, you can find reason to believe the title refers to Picasso's Blue Period.

Translations suck. I should read more books in their original language.