Salinger is obviously a very talented writer, and these two stories are readable only because of it. Without his flair for description, the plots wouldn't stand on their own, since there are none. The latter story especially is just 100 pages of "girl lies on couch and wonders what's the point of it all". Still, worth reading for phrases like "depleted by the demands made on him by a world greedy for the fruit of his intellect".