Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger

Just finished this very fun read... Franny and Zooey are vibrant, pedantic, and neurotic siblings of the dysfunctional Glass family. She, like an adult Holden Caulfield, is unequivocally opposed to phonies and egos, to the point, Zooey describes, of blind homicidal aggression when venting her frustration, so much that she collapses in crisis, reciting the Jesus Prayer in hopes of transcendent peace and wisdom; he, thinking that their older brothers Seymour and Buddy corrupted them into freaks by educating them with boocoos of knowledge (he admits that in the first two minutes of meeting someone he either becomes bored and never bothers with that person again or becomes overly talkative and preachy, and that the only people he'd care to have lunch with are dead or unavailable), tries to help Franny by launching convoluted and erratic diatribes that are oddly cogent. Their back and forth arguing and complaining is quite humorous... Adding to the laughter is Salinger's Henry Jamesian detail of every nuance, physical and mental, vocal and otherwise, often with hyperbole and peculiarity... Although a funny book, Franny's and Zooey's quandaries are serious and troublesome, but exploring them with the characters makes the book even more compelling.