Iranian writer Siamak Golshiri says he has been influenced by "Catcher in the Rye" in composing his "First Summer Day", yet he believes that its narrative has major differences with David Salinger's masterpiece.

IBNA: Explaining on the formation of the idea of 'First Summer Day', Golshiri said: "The main character or narrator of 'First Summer Day' is so similar to my own adolescence period, the life of a teenager living in a pretty good neighborhood who makes friends with bad guys of other districts." 

He continued: "The narrator falls in love with the creeds and manners of these scoundrels and ruffians and this makes him trust them so much. The first idea of the novel in my mind was this. In fact, the story gravitates where the narrator of the story decides to foul his best friend. This main idea gradually developed in my mind and turned out into a novel with all fictional surplusage." 

Elaborating on the use of slangs in the narration of the story, Golshiri remarked: "This language, I believe, can communicate with the audiences well. I wrote the whole first two chapters in bookish formal tone, but then I realized that such a language would not work and I prefer to make a language actually used by teen gangs and slangs." 

"Another reason for choosing slangy tone for this work," Golshiri continued, "was that not a long time is past from this event. The narrator does not narrate it in adulthood, but actually relates it immediately afterwards with a language similar to his own teen's. I believe that the use of slangs adds up to the value of the novel, as here the types of narration and language are involved in the make-believe functioning of the story." 

Writer of "First Summer Day" then referred to the similarities between one of his novels and Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye" and said: "In writing down the 'Nightmare' I was totally influenced by the 'Catcher in the Rye' and I feel that my mind is subconsciously drawn to this novel. In fact, I would not wait for my characters to grow old and narrate their stories years after they have taken place. I like to let them speak when they are still in their childhood." 

He added: "The story is inevitably similar to the 'Catcher in the Rye' because of its language. Yet while Holden Caulfield is clearly telling the story to a certain person, it is not clear to whom the narrator of 'First Summer Day' is telling his story to and this makes the main narrative difference between the two works." 

Not probing into the depth of characters in this novel, Golshiri explained: "I did not want to get involved in the minds of these characters and introduced them more. My main purpose in this work was to recount the event from an exterior perspective and this usually happens in most of my stories. In my stories, only the appearance of people and their dialogues are revealed and one should judge them based on their outward looks and behaviors." 

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