Top ten writers on the telephone

Nicholas Royle's first novel, Quilt, is a study of grief in which the news of a father's death is delivered suddenly and brutally by telephone.

For the Guardian, he named a top ten list of writers on the telephone.

One entry on his list:

JD Salinger (1919-2010)

Salinger has Holden Caulfield, narrator of The Catcher in the Rye (1951), express a deep truth: "What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it." Salinger is loved and admired for this single book. Famously reclusive, however, he was the last author in the world you could have called up whenever you felt like it.

Read about another writer on Royle's list.

The Catcher In The Rye appears on TIME magazine's list of the top ten books you were forced to read in school, Tony Parsons' list of the top ten troubled males in fiction, Dan Rhodes' top ten list of short books, and Sarah Ebner's top 25 list of boarding school books; it is one of Sophie Thompson's six best books. Upon rereading, the novel disappointed Khaled Hosseini, Mary Gordon, and Laura Lippman.

--Marshal Zeringue