Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction was a 1963 book by J. D. Salinger. It was the #3 selling book of 1963 in the United States. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters was originally published by The New Yorker magazine. Like many of the other Glass family stories, Raise High is narrated by Buddy Glass, the second of the Glass brothers, and describes Buddy's visit on Army leave (during World War II, in 1942) to attend the wedding of his brother Seymour, and tells of the events that follow the wedding's non-occurrence. The events that occur in this story set the stage for Seymour's suicide in 1948. Seymour is described through the eyes of Buddy--the only way readers can picture him--and through those of the would-be wedding's attendants. Included is the Matron of Honor, a gruff and burly woman whom Buddy meets in a limo leaving the site of wedding. The rest of the passengers (who include her husband Robert, Muriel's father's deaf-mute uncle and a middle... full article at wikipedia