When J.D. Salinger died on Jan. 27, he left an array of burning questions unanswered. What exactly had the reclusive writer been working on since 1965, when his last short story, ”
Hapworth 16, 1924
,” was published in
The New Yorker
? Did he really take to
drinking his own urine
in his later years? And, perhaps most perplexingly of all, does Zooey Glass’ first name rhyme with “gluey” or “showy?”
Google “how is Zooey pronounced” and you’ll be greeted with
17,700 results
—
none of them conclusive. Many note that the actress Zooey Deschanel, named after Salinger’s male character, pronounces her name “Zoh-ee”
—
but her parents obviously didn’t consult Salinger before christening their daughter. And there’s a rather moving note in the anthology
Letters to J.D. Salinger
from a Zooey who wants to know the proper way to
articulate his own name
. Salinger never responded.
I called up Harold Ober Associates, Salinger’s literary agency, to solve the mystery once and for all. According to their office, the proper pronunciation is
—
drumroll, please
—”
Zoh-ee.” Score one for Deschanel; I guess now there’s nothing left to do but go back to wondering about the urine.
