The memoir is neatly sequenced into winter, spring, summer, and fall. The story starts with a short prologue, “All of Us Girls,” about literary assistants hoping to become writers. Joanna is one of those girls, and she moves to New York City to pursue her dreams. The Agency, where Joanna works, is a lovely place of old-fashioned glamour and old-time machinery in the digital era of the late ‘90s.

Joanna learns how to use Dictaphones and typewriters to painstakingly type out correspondence for her boss. She is not allowed to hold conversations with Jerry Salinger or force her own agenda onto him. While she is genuinely driven by her duties, she secretly desires to read manuscripts for the agents rather than doing some tedious typing. Later on, she is tasked with responding to endless piles of Salinger’s fan mail. At first, she sticks to the form letter, but as she reads the deeply candid and heartfelt letters, she starts writing her own responses.

Joanna finds herself absorbed into a toxic relationship with her socialist boyfriend Don, who also aspires to become a writer, and his bizarre circle of semi-bohemian friends, fighting their inner demons. Nevertheless, she moves in with Don into a tiny, threadbare Williamsburg apartment with no central heating and a lonely exterior.

As time goes by, Joanna struggles to find the balance between the glamour of Manhattan and her own ‘brokenness,’ barely meeting ends with her salary and paying off university debts. Springtime feels like a breakthrough period for both the Agency and Joanna. The editor of a small publishing company in North Carolina manages to sneak a letter to Salinger and strikes up a friendly correspondence. For his own reasons, Salinger agrees to republish “Hapworth 16, 1924” as a standalone volume. The optimism and activity following this surprising deal add to Joanna’s personal joy as she starts side-reading manuscripts for the other agents, Max and Lucy. Technological progress also invades the Agency, and the one and only computer is being installed in the office to much relief of Joanna and other younger staff. Her love life, on the contrary, falls apart, and she is slowly growing apart from Don.

As time flies from summer to fall, everything starts to crumble. Her boss’s lover Daniel takes his life, the Salinger’s deal is broken off due to disloyalty of the publisher, and more and more writers keep on leaving the Agency. The only book that Don wrote receives a cold treatment from the publishers. At the same time, after being encouraged by Salinger, Joanna submits a poem for publication. From that moment, her career in publishing is over, but another career is about to begin. Even after Joanna strikes her first deal, acting as a real agent and selling one young author’s novella to a publisher, she makes an uneasy decision to leave the Agency as well as her ego-centric boyfriend Don and finally pursue the dream of becoming a writer.

In the small epilogue, twelve years later, we see Joanna in the Brooklyn apartment with two children and a beloved husband, tearfully recalling her personal connection to Salinger and his books, as she learns about his untimely death.

“My Salinger Year” is ultimately a candid memoir of “firsts”: first job, first break-up, first publication, and the first time the author came into contact with a literary giant who would profoundly impact her life. It is a beautifully written, insightful book that offers a glimpse into the world of publishing and the challenges faced by young women in the 1990s. Rakoff’s prose is engaging and witty, making the book an easy and enjoyable read. Her descriptions of New York City, the Agency, and the people she encounters are vivid and detailed, transporting the reader to another time and place.

One of the book’s strengths is the way it balances the personal and the professional. While Joanna’s job at the Agency is central to the story, it is equally a coming-of-age tale about a young woman finding her place in the world. Rakoff does an excellent job of weaving together the various threads of the story, creating a cohesive and satisfying narrative.

Another standout feature of the book is its exploration of the writing process. Through Joanna’s experiences, we see the challenges of finding one’s own voice, the importance of perseverance, and the role of feedback in the creative process. These insights will resonate with anyone who has ever aspired to be a writer.

In addition, the book offers a glimpse into the life of J.D. Salinger, one of the most enigmatic and celebrated writers of the 20th century. Although Salinger himself remains something of a mystery, Rakoff’s descriptions of his personality and habits are illuminating and add depth to the book.

There are a few minor drawbacks to the book. As mentioned earlier, the first two-thirds of the book can feel a bit repetitive, as Joanna struggles with the tedium of her job and the challenges of her personal life. However, the final third of the book more than makes up for this, as Joanna finds her footing and the story becomes more dynamic and engaging.

“My Salinger Year” is a well-crafted and engaging memoir that will appeal to anyone interested in the world of publishing or the life of a young woman coming of age in New York City. Rakoff’s writing is insightful, witty, and charming, and her experiences offer a unique perspective on the writing process and the life of a literary assistant. Overall, this is a delightful and memorable book that is well worth reading.

2020 was marked by a movie adaptation of the novel “My Salinger Year” by Joanna Rakoff. The movie follows Rakoff’s experience as an assistant at a literary agency in the 1990s, where she works for the reclusive author J.D. Salinger’s agent. The film stars Margaret Qualley, Sigourney Weaver, Douglas Booth, and Colm Feore.

The film received mixed reviews from critics, with some praising Qualley’s performance and the film’s nostalgic portrayal of the publishing industry. However, many critics found fault with the film’s slow pace and superficiality, citing a meandering and predictable plot that failed to capture the spirit of the memoir. I shared the feeling that the film relied too heavily on cliches and surface-level observations about the publishing industry, shallowly miring in the mundane operations of the agency, rather than digging deeper into the characters’ motivations and experiences. For example, The Guardian called the film “bafflingly insipid, zestless, derivative”, while The New York Times argued that “muted almost to the point of effacement, this limp adaptation of Joanna Rakoff’s 2014 memoir, written and directed by Philippe Falardeau, only affirms that what might work on the page doesn’t always pop on the screen.”

Indeed, the script, by Philippe Falardeau is an odd bird. It’s not quite a character study, but it’s not quite a coming-of-age story either as the film doesn’t quite know what to do with Joanna or her year at the agency, so it becomes an unfocused series of events that never fully engages us. It’s difficult to know who exactly “My Salinger Year” was meant to appeal to, or what it’s trying to achieve, and with this level of superficial screenwriting, it’s doubtful that the intention behind this film was to inspire young women today or celebrate the triumph of feminism in the ‘90s. Despite having some fair share of charm and wit, the end result feels like an rambling, insubstantial mess.

The film also veers away from the more serious tone of the memoir, opting instead for a lighter and more romanticized approach that can feel inauthentic at times. Personally, I didn’t like that the screenwriters added a cheesy over-the-top lovey-dovey scene with Joanna and her boyfriend dancing that doesn’t exist in the book and feels out of place in the film, despite shooting the sequence in the mind-blowing historic wedding venue of the Windsor Ballrooms in Montreal, Canada. The film struggles to balance its romantic subplot with the main story, resulting in an uneven and underdeveloped narrative. It also failed to show Joanna’s heartfelt grappling to juggle the demands of work and personal life as depicted in the memoir, turning everything into a clichéd rose-tinted buffoonery.

As I see it, the film overall miserably fails to translate the humor and heart of Rakoff’s memoir onto the screen and is devoid of the same emotional depth, sharpness and spark of life. The adaptation seems more interested in the pseudo-romance of the publishing industry and putting a nostalgic sheen on things than in probing the deeper meanings behind Rakoff’s experiences. The lack of depth and emotional resonance in the film left me feeling deeply disappointed, especially for I had read and loved the memoir.

With its glossy, polished visuals, calm and carefree tone, “My Salinger Year” feels more like a made-for-TV movie than a cinematic experience. While it’s charming and well-cast, “My Salinger Year” ultimately lacks the depth and nuance needed to bring its source material to life. Ultimately, whether or not you enjoy the film will depend on your personal taste, but it’s clear that “My Salinger Year” did not live up to the expectations of many reviewers.