The Novel: Franny & Zooey-J.D. Salinger
The song:The Aislers Set-Through the Swells

It's J.D. Salinger's famous The Other Book (well, there is Nine Stories, but that's not so much The Other Book as the other book...capitals lacking), and it's a whirlwind, for sure. Like Catcher in the Rye (a key stable on any worthy scene kid's bookshelf), the novel circles around these ideas of non-conformity, fakes, and the validty of a pre-arranged life--the yuppie family with two kids and a dog, the sort.

Like Catcher in the Rye, the book has a style (and the characters speak) in a way that tangents off, but that adds to the sense of watching real life. The Glass family, the main characters, are filled with internal conflicts, and ideas. Many of the ideas presented--be it Franny's Jesus Prayer or Zooey's take on religion in general sound true to life and worth pondering. Much of the novel (if not all) is based upon these conversations, and watching the characters' reactions. These little details, the picking up of a cigarette, the tapping of a finger, add to the sense of dizzy realism to the novel and interest. It's a must read for those who enjoyed Catcher in the Rye.

The Aislers Set, meanwhile, portrays the feeling of the book--with all its little details and angled mirror shots of life, the slightly chaotic and confusing emotions, the sense of distance and losing oneself--with hazy indie pop of the bedroom type. If Franny made music, I imagine this is something like what her band would sound like.