J. D. Salinger_ A Life - Kenneth Slawenski [30]
Salinger’s tendency to ridicule his own works is something of a mystery when considering “The Varioni Brothers.” He apologized profusely for this story, explaining its lack of quality with the excuse that it had been written with Hollywood in mind.* However, his explanation appears to be somewhat insincere. Beneath an admittedly movie-styled surface, “The Varioni Brothers” examines the power of success to destroy true inspiration and contains an unmistakable analysis of the author himself, a sophisticated parable that Hollywood would certainly not have understood.
“The Varioni Brothers” follows the lives of two brothers, a musician in pursuit of success and a writer in pursuit of quality. The musician overpowers his weaker, more sensitive brother with his ambition for fame and forces him to abandon a novel that he has been writing on the back of matchbooks and instead write lyrics for his songs. The songs become hits, and the brothers are catapulted to wealth and renown. What is transparent while reading “The Varioni Brothers” is that both brothers are based upon Salinger himself. In order to give the Varioni brothers life, the author splits himself between two facets of his own personality and the two diverse professional roads open to him. Salinger created Joe Varioni as a writer, teaching English at a small college while working on his book. Joe’s writing is serious, if in disarray, and Salinger elevates it to the level of “art” in this story. Joe’s influential professor, a Burnett-like academic, goes as far as to call him a “poet.” Joe Varioni is so much the dedicated writer that Salinger longed to be that it is surprising not to encounter him submitting works to The New Yorker. On the other hand, Joe’s brother, though talented, only cares about fame and fortune. He does not write music as art but as a product, a fact verbalized in his lament that he “cannot hear the music” he creates.23 He is lazy, pushy, and sometimes wicked. In case it’s not clear enough, Salinger even names this brother “Sonny,” after his youthful self. If Collier’s had had a music department, Sonny Varioni would have been camped out on its doorstep.
“The Varioni Brothers” is a kitschy kind of morality play, and Sonny’s greed inevitably destroys his brother. One night, during a celebrity-studded party thrown for them, Joe is gunned down by a gangster who mistakes him for Sonny. At the time, Joe was uncharacteristically at the piano, playing a song called “I Want to Hear the Music.” Here again, Salinger’s message is clear. He expresses his fear that his own commercial success will suffocate his creative purity. Unlike in “The Heart of a Broken Story,” there is no longer any ambiguity: “The Varioni Brothers” displays commercialism as pure evil and Salinger’s own immature attraction to it as equivalent to death.
• • •
Salinger had not intended that “The Varioni Brothers” should reach the public through the pages of the Post or of any other magazine. Although much of his writing, including The Catcher in the Rye, professes disdain for motion pictures, Jerry always adored the movies and longed to see his name on the silver screen. Before “The Varioni Brothers” was purchased by the Post, Salinger had given it, along with several other pieces, to the well-known literary agent Max Wilkinson. Wilkinson had taken the story to Hollywood and tried selling it to the studios.24 Hollywood showed some interest, but the attention was short-lived and the prospect, along with Salinger’s association with Wilkinson, soon faded. Ultimately, his attempted foray into the movies resulted only in a number of