The Catcher in the Rye

This book was recommended to me, and I'd not heard of it before, so didn't have any preconceived ideas. I found it extremely well written with some profound insights. Although it's very much of it's time (1950s), it's also 'modern' in many ways. The narrator, Holden Caufield, takes us through two days in his life the previous December, and I found his unfolding psychological crisis deeply moving, and can't understand those reviews who say they found it boring. I would certainly recommend this book.

This book is rubbish. I bought and read it after hearing it was a brilliant classic but I honestly think people probably think the same as I do but to not appear uneducated or think they have to suck up to the literature snobs they claim it’s wonderful!! It’s not!!

Holden Caulfield, a 16 year old boy, is stuck between getting kicked out of his prestigious private school and returning home to his understandably upset parents. As a result, he is left wandering the streets of New York, depressed, lonely, and nearly suicidal. In his journey he has numerous encounters with a variety of characters. “Catcher in the Rye” is a coming of age book written with an interesting style, through the lens of an introspective and confused adolescent. The book touches on important themes in a manner that excels in impacting the reader. As a relatable character, Holden helps to make the book a fairly worthwhile read. However, as Holden meets character upon character in the book, it can be difficult to keep track of them. The nature of Holden’s wandering means nearly constant changes that sometimes make the plot feel incoherent. His frequent tangents can be an insight into his mind, but can occasionally leave the reader thinking “get back to the story already.” While it is certainly a good book, it is questionable whether it deserves its classical literature reputation or not. I did not find it to be significantly better than an average book to be worthy of the popularity that it has. Overall, definitely not a bad book.

This is supposedly a classic. The boy in this book just seems like a maladjusted, not particularly bright or likable kid. I gave up about 2/3 of the way through. I was hoping it'd get better, but I skipped to the last page. It didn't. I'm not sure why this is a classic, but I now understand why the author went underground after having written it.

I read the end of The Catcher in the Rye the other day and found myself wanting to take Holden Caulfield by the collar and shake him really, really hard and shout at him to grow up. I suppose I've understood for some time now that The Catcher in the Rye -- a favorite of mine when I was sixteen -- was a favorite precisely because I was sixteen. At sixteen, I found Holden Caulfield's crisis profoundly moving; I admired his searing indictment of society, his acute understanding of human nature, his extraordinary sensitivity (I mean, come on, he had a nervous breakdown for God's sake, he had to be sensitive). At sixteen, I wanted to marry Holden Caulfield. At forty, I want to spank him. After all, Holden's indictment of society boils down to the "insight" that everybody is a phony. That's the kind of insight a sixteen year old considers deep. A forty year old of the grown-up variety recognizes Holden's insight as superficial and banal, indulging in the cheapest kind of adolescent posturing. It suggests a grasp of society and of human nature that's about as complex as an episode of Dawson's Creek. Holden and his adolescent peers typically behave as though the fate they have suffered (disillusionment and the end of innocence) is unique in human history. He can't see beyond the spectacle of his own disillusionment (and neither can J. D. Salinger); for all his painful self-consciousness, Holden Caulfield is not really self-aware. He can't see that he himself is a phony. Compare Salinger's novel of arrested development, for instance, with a real bildungsroman, Great Expectations. Holden Caulfield is an adolescent reflecting on childhood and adolescence; Pip Pirrip is an adult reflecting on childhood and adolescence. Holden Caulfield has the tunnel vision of teendom, and he depicts events with an immediacy and absorption in the experience that blocks out the broader context, the larger view. Pip Pirrip has the wonderful double vision of a sensitive adult recollecting the sensitive child he used to be; he conveys at the same time the child's compelling perspective and the adult's thoughtful revision of events. While Holden Caulfield litters his narrative with indignant exposes of phonies and frauds, Pip Pirrip skillfully concentrates on "the spurious coin of his own make" -- that is, without letting the child Pip and the adolescent Pip in on the joke, he exposes himself as a phony. Pip Pirrip grows up. Holden Caulfield has a nervous breakdown. I suppose the only reason I begrudge him his breakdown is that so many in our culture -- many more, unfortunately, than just the legitimate adolescents among us -- seem fixated on Holden as a symbol of honesty and socially-liberating rebellion. We view nervous collapse and dysfunction as a badge of honor, a sign -- to put it in Caulfieldian terms -- that we are discerning enough to see through all the c...