据英国《卫报》报道，最新公开的J·D·赛林格书信披露了作家的一些出乎人们意料的生活细节：赛林格并不是人们想象的那样的足不出户的隐居者。实际情况是，作家避开了公众的关注之后的私人生活其实和所有的普通人一样平凡但不乏味。除了在自家花园里栽花种菜之外，他喜欢时不常地乘坐汽车到尼亚加拉去看大瀑布；喜欢看电视连续剧《楼下楼上》（Upstairs, Downstairs）；喜欢倍儿大倍儿大的牛奶巧克力球；喜欢网球明星亨曼（没事就喜欢收集整理所有与亨曼相关的资料，是个典型的“亨曼粉”），等等，不一而足。。。

披露这些细节的书信是赛林格写个他的好友，英国人唐纳德·赫尔托格（Donald Hertog）的。上周，这些书信被公诸于世。这些书信由赫尔托格的女儿捐赠给了英国东英吉利亚大学，于赛林格去世周年纪念时首次展出。

《卫报》的这篇题为“JD Salinger a recluse? No, just your average Tim Henman fan”的报道的最后两段文字意味深长。我很喜欢，尤其是这一句“he turned himself into a “recluse” in order to be the opposite – a normal guy”：

Should we be surprised that Salinger liked Henman and Burger King? Much of the coverage has suggested that we should, as if such revelations overturn our pre-existing notions of what he was like. In truth, what they actually reveal is that our understanding of what being a “recluse” means is faulty. All that the world really knew was that, at some point in the 1960s, Salinger ceased to publish and cut off all engagement with the press. By the media’s definition, that made him a recluse.

But isn’t it more likely that he cut himself off so that he would be better able to keep up with friends and go on bus tours? In other words, he turned himself into a “recluse” in order to be the opposite – a normal guy. There are, it seems, recluses and “recluses” and we should be wary of confusing one with the other.