My Salinger Year

1995. Originally from the suburbs of New York City, Berkeley post-graduate student Joanna, on a visit home, decides on the spur of the moment to leave behind her life at Berkeley, including musician boyfriend Karl, to try and eke out a life as a writer, most specifically a poet, in New York City. In her personal life, she immerses herself in the "aspiring" literary world in beginning a relationship with Marxist wannabe novelist and bookstore clerk Don. But looking for a proverbial nine-to-five job to pay the bills, Joanna is advised by a placement agent to look for a job with a literary agent instead of a publisher if her end goal is to write. She ends up getting a job as the assistant to Margaret, a high powered literary agent whose highest profile client Joanna learns is "Jerry": J.D. Salinger. In working for somewhat tyrannical and proverbial "old school" Margaret who abhors new technology such as computers, Joanna ends up being no more than a glorified secretary whose main jobs are to type out Margaret's Dictaphone recorded notes, and to read, respond to using the appropriate form letter on file, then shred all personal letters addressed to Salinger, who thirty-four years ago issued the directive that he would no longer accept any such mail in his increasing reclusive and eccentric nature. Within this situation, Joanna, in her somewhat misguided life if it is to become a writer, is affected in large part by reading the letters to Salinger, she admitting despite never having read any of his books, and her very brief interactions with him over the telephone.