SOURCE: "Search for the Seer" in 7. D. Salinger, Twayne Publishers, 1963, pp. 139-60.

In the following excerpt, French provides a mixed assessment of Salinger's novella, maintaining that it is "not distinguished art, but a self-improvement tract. "

In January, 1955,I was employed to hold English classes by the University of Kentucky, where "contemporary literature" usually meant the writings of the Nashville "Fugitives" and their offspring, although some iconoclastic students read that upstart Faulkner. I was surprised, therefore, upon returning for the spring semester to find that a story by J. D. Salinger in the previous week's New Yorker had disturbed even the tranquillity of this bluegrass fastness as it had rocked more pretentiously in-the-swim academies in the fabled East.

True, much of the initial discussion of "Franny" revolved around a question that has greatly distressed the sensation-hating author, "Is Franny pregnant?" Wise heads nodded yes, and certainly her escort's concern...