A Perfect Day for Bananafish
Muriel Glass is a wealthy woman living in an upscale resort in Florida. She is married to a man named Seymouor who is a veteran being treated for a psychiatric condition. Muriel frequently discusses her husband with her mother, who is concerned about his behavior because she fears that he might lose control of himself completely. Whilst Seymour is lying on the beach an unsupervised child called Sybil wanders over to him and the two wade into the ocean where Seymour tells Sybil all about the bananafish who die because they eat so many bananas they cannot fit out of their feeding holes. Once he has gone back to the hotel Seymour's mood changes and finding Muriel asleep in their hotel room, retrieves a gun from his luggage, and shoots himself.
Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut
Eloise is married to a man she doesn't love, and longs for the man she is in love with, who is sadly deceased. Once when she and the man she loves, Walt, were running to catch a bus, she twisted her ankle, Walt affectionately trying to cheer her up by referring to her ankle as Uncle Wiggly.
Just Before the War with the Eskimos
Ginnie Mannox and Selena Graff are high school classmates and they are involved in an argument about Selena always leaving Ginnie to pay for the cab when they go to play tennis on Saturdays. Ginnie goes home with Selena to collect the money she owes her and is left alone in the living room with Selena's older brother, whom she does't like, but whom she learns was turned down by the Army because of a congenital heart defect, and who has been working in a factory for three years. When Selena comes back into the room Ginnie tells her she doesn't have to give her the money after all.
The Laughing Man
The narrator of the story recalls being a nine year old and belonging to the Comanche Club in New York City. It was 1928 and the leader of the club is a law student at NYU. The narrator appears to be in love with him Every day he gathers the club members together for another installment of his story The Laughing Man. When he starts dating, the adventures of the Laughing Man mirror his relationship in that when his relationship is going well, so are the fortunes of the Laughing Many. In the last installment of the story, after an argument with his girlfriend, the Chief kills off the Laughing Man.
Teddy
October 28, 1952, on board a luxury liner; Teddy is a ten year old headed home to America with his wealthy parents who are entertainers. They have been touring Britain and he has been quite the center of attention because he claims to have advanced spiritual enlightenment. His parents are quite verbally abusive and his response to this is to ponder the nature of the universe. This irritates his parents to send him to find his sister on the poop deck. As he leaves he tells them that they may only see him again in the realms of memory.
Down at the Dinghy
The first part of the story involves a discussion between two house servants, Mrs Snell and Sandra, about the home owner's young son Lionel, as Sandra is worried he is going to tell his father about some anti-Semitic comments he overheard her making. Lionel tells his father about the comment but his mother soothes him and helps him come to terms with it, letting him know how much she loves him and boosting his self-esteem.
For Esme - with Love and Squalor
The narrator has been invited to attend a wedding in England but cannot go because his wife's mother will arrive for a visit on the same date. He instead writes a letter recalling his friendship with the bride. One was during a stormy afternoon when he strolls into town to listen to a children;s choir singing and finds it makes him feel lonely. He meets a girl, who is the bride of whom he is speaking, who is an orphan because her parents have been killed during the war. She wears her father's huge military watch to remember him. When the narrator is recovering from a mental breakdown in a field hospital after D-Day, he receives the watch in the mail from Esme, who wants him to use it as a talisman.
De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period.
John Smith is the first person narrator of this story. He is living with his widowed stepfather with whom he does not get along. He takes a job in Montreal to get away from him but he does not have the artistic credentials he claimed and so invents a new persona for himself, Jean de Daumier-Smith. He likes the art of a young nun enrolled in the academy's correspondence course but she is forced to withdraw from her studies after his communication with her is deemed in appropriate.
Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes
Lee receives a telephone call from his friend Arthur who is worried because his wife Joanne left a dinner party and disappeared. When he hangs up the woman next to him on the sofa tells him that she feels terrible - she of course is the missing wife of his friend. She leaves, and shortly afterwards he receives another call from Arthur who tells him that his wife has returned. Lee is flabbergasted and quickly ends the conversation.
