Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters

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Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters
256 pages; Back Bay Books
When she was 14, Lawrence traveled to New York City to start her career, so Salinger's tales of the quintessential New York family—the brilliant, sophisticated, doomed Glasses—have a special place in her heart. "I'm so drawn to Salinger's view of society back then, and to his sarcasm. I read Catcher in the Rye first, then this one. I don't think there's ever been anything like these characters in American literature."