Raise high the roof beam, carpenters : and, Seymour : an introduction

The last book-length work of fiction by J. D. Salinger published in his lifetime collects two novellas about "one of the liveliest, funniest, most fully realized families in all fiction" (New York Times). These two novellas, set seventeen years apart, are both concerned with Seymour Glass--the eldest son of J. D. Salinger's fictional Glass family--as recalled by his closest brother, Buddy. "He was a great many things to a great many people while he lived, and virtually all things to his brothers and sisters in our somewhat outsized family. Surely he was all real things to us: our blue-striped unicorn, our double-lensed burning glass, our consultant genius, our portable conscience, our supercargo, and our one full poet..." Two stories of the Glass family, as told by Buddy. The first is an account of Seymour's wedding day; the second follows Seymour's development through the years Further stories of the Glass family. Buddy Glass introduces his older brother and describes the events of Seymour's wedding day