Catcher in the Rye

I just finished reading this classic by JD Salinger “Catcher in the Rye”. Reading the book was like reading a 16 year old kid, Holden Caulfield’s blog, a medium through which he is venting out his angst towards life in general. The author Is Holden as in, the book is written in first person. The kid is angry, depressed, sick and tired of his monotonous life, sick of going to...more

I just finished reading this classic by JD Salinger “Catcher in the Rye”. Reading the book was like reading a 16 year old kid, Holden Caulfield’s blog, a medium through which he is venting out his angst towards life in general. The author Is Holden as in, the book is written in first person. The kid is angry, depressed, sick and tired of his monotonous life, sick of going to schools full of phony people. Phony as in fake, hypocrite, pretentious. Holden, has been a drop out from most of the prestigious schools, the novel begins when he is about to drop out of yet another school. Spread across around 3-4 days of his life in New York, a place where he was born and brought up, the entire book is a reading of his thoughts he has during these days. The language of the book is that of a high school going American kid extremely casual and smooth and most importantly its like a talking. When you read the book you feel as if you are listening to some on radio or something and not reading a piece of literature. Phrases like, “anyways, as I was saying”, “…if you wanna know the truth”, “man that kills me” are extremely common throughout the book. The language sort of grows over you. After reading bout 10 chapters of the book I myself started using that kinda words while I was on Gtalk. Its strange one has to read it to know it I guess. There is ample humor in the book. Humor is bound to be coz you are looking at the world through this kid’s eyes. So when one of his teacher gives him a serious lecture on how to go about his life, how to find what is it that he wants according to the mind he has got, all he can gather from the speech is that he was being very nice trying to help me find the size of my mind. Everything that’s serious and important to us adults seems to be funny and phony to him. There is a line in the book where Holden talks about his favorite authors and books, he says he likes reading those books the most where he feels like he can call up the author as if the author is his buddy and discuss the characters and events in the book. This book is exactly that book. As I was reading it, I felt like talking to Holden. Felt like telling, “Kid, don’t be such a pessimist, life is not all that bad. You are a beautiful person, don’t let all your negative energy ruin that beauty of yours.” I believe this is what has made the book a classic, the way you connect to the protagonist. Holden has an opinion about everything and body. Most of the time he isn’t impressed and is sarcastic. But there are things which he likes. His sister, the nuns a the station the ducks in the lagoon. I wonder what opinion will he have for me if he happens to meet me. Would he think I am a phony or would he like me? That’s how much I could connect with the character    hide

In lieu of an actual review for this classic, I'll simply post from another message board where I discussed my current re-read of it, specifically the fact that so many people despise it for one reason or another: Having finally given Catcher the time it deserved (I never finished it first time round) I can now honestly say that not appreciating it means you missed the point. I can see how...more

In lieu of an actual review for this classic, I'll simply post from another message board where I discussed my current re-read of it, specifically the fact that so many people despise it for one reason or another: Having finally given Catcher the time it deserved (I never finished it first time round) I can now honestly say that not appreciating it means you missed the point. I can see how it could be unlikeable. Holden is an annoying narrator. He vascilates from one opinion to the opposite in the span of a page, he rambles on often, he's got a low tolerance threshhold, and there are times he's just an ass. But, er, that's the point. If you don't like Holden, Salinger did his job. On the same token, I find it hard to hate Holden, because I see bits of me in him. Less now than when I look back on when I was his age, but I think most teens should be able to relate to Holden, especially male teens. If you can't, you're either incredibly well adjusted, and if that's the case, you lucked out, or you're the sort of person that drives someone to become Holden, jaded by everything before graduating High School, convinced everyone is phony... not that Holden himself isn't phony at times, but every teen is. The book isn't about events. The events are commonplace. They're supposed to be. It's about the character, and what he says, and to extrapolate, what it means. You could say it's cautionary, that Salinger is laughing at the spoiled rich brat he's writing Holden as, and that we the reader should take it as warning not to become him. We could see it as dystopian, that Salinger was commenting on the shallowness of American culture through the eyes of a child, one well-off enough to both see its most glaring pettiness as well as partake in it's seedier aspects. You could even see it as a bit of a commentary about what really matters... about how even the most cynical teen out there still has something they love (in Holden's case, family). You could even take that a step further, and see it psychologically... what damage a loss like that of Allie could cause in a young mind, etc. There's a lot to look into in The Catcher in the Rye... even the admittedly weak explaination of the title could spark discussion as to what it says about or means in terms of his character. These are just the impressions I get from it... hardly researched, but then, the best book discussions shouldn't come from research but from your heart. I just think that with many classics, people start looking for something huge... a big, rollicking plot, some amazing humour or poetic language, and sometimes the brilliance of a book is so much more subtle. Not that Holden can't turn a phrase, and certainly not to say that there are times when Holden's sheer contradictory nature jumps the line into humorous, and not even to say there aren't some big and poignant moments in the mundanity (word?) of the plot... simply that in a book like this, even those moneymaker bits are understated.    hide

Yes, I agree, love it or hate it, and I love it. I think it's a question of whether you can love a book while simultaneously wanting to scream at and shake the character, and for me, the answer is yes... as long as there's enough to relate to about the character that you can kind of see where he's coming from, even when he's thinking and doing the most overreactive, maddening things. That...more

Yes, I agree, love it or hate it, and I love it. I think it's a question of whether you can love a book while simultaneously wanting to scream at and shake the character, and for me, the answer is yes... as long as there's enough to relate to about the character that you can kind of see where he's coming from, even when he's thinking and doing the most overreactive, maddening things. That and the language and point of view is so bizarre, it can't help but be intriguing. You keep thinking, wait, HOW did he come to this conclusion again? Often there is no answer - he's just crazy, sometimes - but it keeps you guessing. And the feelings, the desperation, come across so strong that even when they don't make sense, which is often, you have to sympathize with the guy almost despite yourself. Since a defining characteristic of Holden is that he doesn't like anything, it's interesting to ponder on how Salinger might have chosen the very few things he does like. His little sister, his brother, who's dead... but not his parents. Kids in general, but not his peers. The idea of prostitutes, but not the prostitutes themselves. Drinking, but not drunks. There's a pattern here, and it's debatable what it is. I don't pretend to understand Holden, or Salinger, but it's fun to try. Anyway, the book is fun to read. It's easy and the language is simple, but that doesn't make it trite. Lots of 'classics' are perceived as something you should have to force yourself to read, but this one goes down like guilty pleasure reading, with the added satisfaction of having read something with substance.   hide

Okay, here's the thing: back in my sophomore year of high school we were told that we would not be reading this book in our honors English class, but the regular classes were. Why? I haven't the slightest but it really bothered me that we would not be reading it. I decided that I was going to read it instead of the assigned reading (To Kill a Mockingbird, which I read and fell in love with but...more

Okay, here's the thing: back in my sophomore year of high school we were told that we would not be reading this book in our honors English class, but the regular classes were. Why? I haven't the slightest but it really bothered me that we would not be reading it. I decided that I was going to read it instead of the assigned reading (To Kill a Mockingbird, which I read and fell in love with but that's another story entirely.) It's an easy book to plow through because the chapters are short and the unreliable narration really appealed to me. At first, I thought what just about everyone thinks of Holden: that he was an irritating, whiny teenager who needs the snot beaten out of him so he can come to grips with the real world (although maybe not in those words, yeah?) And I loved him for that. The more the story progresses, the reader is able to see different sides of his personality. Holden wasn't some stuck up teenager; he was very troubled and lonely. By the time he has his infamous conversation with Phoebe in her room, my opinion of him did a complete 180. Holden is a very sensitive character who was teetering on the verge of a nervous breakdown throughout the course of the story, and when you go back and reread every chapter you pick up on that. It makes the story a bit sadder. The only *real* complaint I can understand from people is the ending. Not everyone appreciates how Salinger's character tells it, but I thought it was the most ingenius aspect to the novel. Even though he doesn't directly tell you what happened, it's completely obvious to me. As soon as I finished, I went back and reread it right away; and have reread several times more. It's a "classic" for a reason - and dearly loved book by this reader.   hide