The book is a memoir of the story of J.D. Salinger, his novel, and the literary agency from the perspective of a new employee named Joanna.Joanna Rakoff‘s sentences were a bit long for me. However I thought the typewriter font used for each chapter‘s title is appropriate for the book‘s setting and tone.The people and industry surrounding literature and books - their thoughts and attitudes were all different, yet they also had something in common. While reading this book, I reflected on what books mean to me.I enjoyed the process of getting to know something unfamiliar and seeing something familiar in a new way. I empathized with Joanna‘s journey of discovering different facets of New York and observing and understanding the changes in the people around her (coworkers and friends).Joanna dreams of becoming a competent agent and contemplates her inner self, aspiring to live as a writer. However, she decides her own future. I see it as Joanna‘s self-understanding and growing by looking into herself as she would understand others.