"Once a Week Won’t Kill You" is a work of short fiction by J. D. Salinger published in the November–December 1944 issue of Story.
[3]Salinger likely began writing "Once a Week Won't Kill You" while on board the military transport vessel SS George Washington.
[4] Biographer Kenneth Slawenski notes that the story "was laced with nostalgia for a world that Salinger was already beginning to miss and feared he might never see again.
[6] Literary critic John Wenke describes the story as an exploration "of the ruptures war visits upon individuals and families.
"[7] Biographer Kenneth Slawenski discerns an ironical element associated with this particular work of short fiction: While Salinger was enduring Hürtgen, "Once a Week Won’t Kill You" was published…The appearance of this piece, its plot trivial in comparison to his present circumstances, was tinged with irony.