Love for Sale

MANY crocodile tears have recently been shed in the press over Joyce Maynard’s decision to put her love letters from J. D. Salinger up for auction at Sotheby’s. Most commentators claim to find the sale tasteless and crass, at the least; at worst, they judge it a betrayal of love. Joyce Carol Oates calls it “the ironic end of a fantasy of idealized love”; E. L. Doctorow says he simply finds the whole thing “sad.”

Brooke Allen reviews books regularly for The New Criterion and other publications.