The Heart of a Broken Story
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| "The Heart of a Broken Story" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by J. D. Salinger | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publication | |
| Published in | Esquire |
| Publication date | September, 1941 |
"The Heart of a Broken Story" is a short story by J. D. Salinger published in the September 1941 issue of Esquire.[1][2][3]
The third-person narrator begins the story, involving a romantic encounter between its youthful protagonists, Justin Horgenschlag and Shirley Lester. When Justin sees Shirley on a public bus, he instantly becomes infatuated with her, and begins his efforts to ask her for a date.
The omniscient narrator breaks into the narrative at this point and speaks directly to the reader: he admits that he is struggling to proceed with the story. He admits that the premise of the story is trite. The narrator further makes pejorative remarks about the literary journal in which the narrative appears, disparaging its typical literary content. After offering a number of scenarios in an effort to construct a meaningful love story, he abandons the project. The narrator relegates the would-be couple to their former anonymity, and they disembark the bus to pursue their separate lives.[4][5]
Critical Assessment
"The Heart of a Broken Story" marks a turning point in Salinger's approach to writing for commercial literary markets in the 1940s. Biographer Kenneth Slawnski explains:
"The story has a bleak and serious underside that displays the dilemma in which Salinger currently found himself: whether to strive for quality or salability...he made a conscious decision to separate his writing between those containing introspection and nuance and the more marketable works that could earn him a quick buck."[6]
Literary critic John Wenke observes that the story "invalidates its own premises. Well before meta-fiction became fashionable, Salinger unmakes - that is, he deconstructs - the form of the sentimental love story..."[7]
Wenke adds that "The Heart of a Broken Story" is a "highly sophisticated, carefully refined piece...remarkable for its surface play of comic brilliance."[8]
