Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Lit:

A perfect evening for ‘Bananafish’

Bananafish

Kristen Peterson

Actors with One Hand Clapping perform Salinger’s “Bananafish.”

It seems like any other night in any low-lit piano bar, as patrons huddle up to tables to sip drinks and share stories.

At 7 p.m., the music stops. The crowd at Don’t Tell Mama on Fremont Street turns toward the small stage for the main event: a reading of J.D. Salinger’s short story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” performed by four actors and a narrator.

This is an early, private launch event for the 2010 Vegas Valley Book Festival, which will be held November 3-7.

The arrival of Seymour Glass, Muriel, her mother and Sybil is magical, inspiring and riveting. We’re transported, and reminded of what literature can do. It’s a perfect way to inspire the festival partners, sponsors and authors, who were still talking about the story as they left. Suddenly, November seems a long way away.

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