by Jūratė Žuolytė DELFI.lt
The novel Catcher in the Rye by American writer Jerome David Salinger published in 1951 has become well-known around the world and teenage protagonist Holden Caulfield with his unique perspective on events is a household name in at least 24 languages. The author, who passed away in late January, 2010, always avoided fanfare and said little of himself publicly, but his inveterate fans figured out his Livtak forefathers hailed from the Sudargas district of Lithuania, coming to America in the 19th century. Now, this June 19, a monument will be unveiled in the Lithuanian village of the same name to commemorate the author, his works and his roots for future generations.
Two years ago producer Rolandas Skaisgirys, who comes from the same area, came up with the idea to erect the monument . “People have all sorts of idées fixes. Native country is important to everyone, but to me, inside, I always thought home village was more important, I think that’s where everything begins. The Zanavykai region of Šakiai region has many varied cultural and historical memorial sites and many famous people have come from here, for example, I have made documentary films about the signatories to the 1918 Lithuanian Act of Independence Jonas Vailokaitis and Saliamonas Banatis. And then a few years ago Audrius Siaurusevičius told me Salinger’s great-grandfather was from Sudargas, which is close to where I grew up, and then we decided there must be a way to mark this fact, to build a statue or do an installation,” Skaisgirys said. They moved quickly to make this happen with people who felt the same way, including the producers Lauras Lučiūnas and Justinas Garliauskas and others. When they received confirmation from the Sudargas aldermanship expressing high approval for the idea and permission to erect a statue near the Sudargas earthen mound, they contracted sculptor Nerijus Erminas to make the monument.
Lithuanian-Polish writer and thinker Tomas Venclova said: “This novel is truly fashionable in Lithuania as in the rest of the world, at least it was during its time. To tell the truth, its effect was dual: the man who murdered John Lennon loved this book as did the halfwit who tried to assassinate president Ronald Reagan; so the book responded to their internal crises. Many completely moral and worthwhile people, however, have also loved the book, and as I’ve said, it’s impossible to hold anything against this book, it is simply very well written. Maybe not as well written as Huckleberry Finn, but truly good. And since Catcher in the Rye is perhaps the only novel for which Salinger is known in Lithuania, it’s natural the monument would be dedicated to this novel, and perhaps it be could erected next to a rye field by a cliff. That would be a very appropriate idea.”
Full text in Lithuanian here.