Down at the Dinghy

"The swinging door opened from the dining room and Boo Boo Tannenbaum, the lady of the house, came into the kitchen. She was a small, almost hipless girl of twenty-five, with styleless, colorless, brittle hair pushed back behind her ears, which were very large. She was dressed in knee-length jeans, a black turtleneck pullover, and socks and loafers. Her joke of a name aside, her general unprettiness aside, she was-in terms of permanently memorable, immoderately perceptive, small-area faces-a stunning and final girl. She went directly to the refrigerator and opened it. As she peered inside, with her legs apart and her hands on her knees, she whistled, unmelodically, through her teeth, keeping time with a little uninhibited, pendulum action of her rear end."

- "Down at the Dingy", Nine Stories

I love it when authors are in love with their characters.

Beautific, enamored descriptions are so raptuous to read. And Salinger has such a way with his physical descriptions - the image as a "hipless, small, unpretty" childlike girl of twenty-five is intriguing enough, but he just had to go bestow that "stunning and final quality" that Boo-Boo is entitled to as a member of the illustrious Glass family. I found this paragraph exciting on a personal level, frankly, because I've always loved physical descriptions about people (if you look back, I rambled on endlessly about Margot from "The Royal Tenenbaums") and this vivid description reminds me of how, a few years back I experienced a rare jolt of inspiration that led me produce a lengthy description about a slender-ish, small girl who wore "khaki cutoffs trimmed smartly around the knee".

It makes me wonder desperately about Salinger's visualization of Boo-Boo, or who she was based off. I'll be on the lookout for any actress that resembles this description. Boo-Boo sounds insanely chic, doesn't she? Effortless gamine style. I have a theory that all writers are great fashionistas.