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The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
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The Catcher in the Rye (edition 2001)

by J. D. Salinger

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
69,337107514 (3.78)3 / 1120
Story of Holden Caufield with his idiosyncrasies, penetrating insight, confusion, sensitivity and negativism. Holden, knowing he is to be expelled from school, decides to leave early. He spends three days in New York City and tells the story of what he did and suffered there.
Member:thehudg1
Title:The Catcher in the Rye
Authors:J. D. Salinger
Info:Back Bay Books (2001), Edition: Reissue, Paperback, 288 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:*****
Tags:None

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The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

1950s (6)
Read (25)
AP Lit (41)
scav (26)
100 (34)
Cooper (41)
Teens (3)
Read (3)
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Showing 1-5 of 1000 (next | show all)
Representation: Minor Asian character
Trigger warnings: Smoking, alcohol use, gun violence, racism, racist slurs, suicidal thoughts and suicide mentioned, emesis
Score: Seven points out of ten.
Find this review on The StoryGraph.

I wanted to read The Catcher in the Rye since I saw it circle my recommendations, and when I saw a library having this, I immediately wanted to pick it up. I couldn't glance at the blurb, since there was no blurb. However, I went in with high hopes. When I closed the final page, the book was enjoyable.

It starts with the first character I see, Holden, who had to leave school after his expulsion and now the only action he can do is to wander around New York. He spends all of the narrative doing that and contemplating others, and, most importantly, himself. I was in Holden's mind throughout the fictional composition, and initially, I was disconnected from him and couldn't relate. I feared I wouldn't enjoy The Catcher in the Rye. Eventually, Holden grew on me and I liked it more and more. However, I still have gripes with it. A less repetitive writing style would've added to The Catcher in the Rye. The author could've put as much effort into the other characters as Holden. But he did not, making it difficult for me to connect or relate to them. For a novel over 200 pages, it's slow-paced. There isn't a genuine conclusion to The Catcher in the Rye, but I delighted myself in reading it nonetheless. ( )
  Law_Books600 | Mar 18, 2024 |
A slightly addictive monologue which left me wondering about why so many of the 'great American novels' that I've read recently, such as Kerouac's On the Road and Roth's Portnoy's Complaint, are monologues about going nowhere. The former (although written earlier) seems to pick up where Catcher in the Rye leaves off; the idea of leaving the city (or a life) and hitching a ride to no particular destination.

Normally, when I read, I mark special passages but here I didn't. Not sure why. Holden's voice is a sustained tour de force but I found myself wondering, at times what certain encounters contributed and how easily they could have been omitted. In many ways I think, with editing it would have made a better short story piece than a novel. Holden does not really go anywhere. ( )
  simonpockley | Feb 25, 2024 |
A classic bildungsroman. I liked it less than other coming-of-age-novels I've read such as [b:Siddharta|444555|Siddharta|Hermann Hesse|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1296827112s/444555.jpg|4840290], but in overall it was pretty good. I couldn't relate to the cynical and mistrusting personality of the main character, which, combined with his apathy for the future and his self-fashioned loneliness, set a depressing tone for the book. It was not until I read the analysis from SparkNotes that I begun to understand the novel a little better. It also gives a very interesting impression of the loneliness and shallowness one could experience in citylife in the 50's. ( )
  jd7h | Feb 18, 2024 |
Read for a YA Lit course. I liked parts of it, but the swearing in literally every sentence (or every other sentence) was distracting. It took away some of my enjoyment of the book. I did really love the ending though. ( )
  Dances_with_Words | Jan 6, 2024 |
I've read weirder books, but they usually had some sort of plot. I'm not sure what the point of this book is or why it's such a classic. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it, either. I didn't consider it a waste of time; it wasn't that bad, but I don't feel like I've been missing out all these years by not reading it, either. ( )
  amandabeaty | Jan 4, 2024 |
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One of the greatest novels of the 20th century.

added by vibesandall | editCommon Sense Media, Liz Perle (Aug 2, 2021)
 
In the 70 years since Caulfield first cynically railed against the world’s superficiality, the character has grown into an icon of teen rebellion, describing a timeless sense of alienation.
added by vibesandall | editTime, Madeleine Carlisle
 
"Some of my best friends are children," says Jerome David Salinger, 32. "In fact, all of my best friends are children." And Salinger has written short stories about his best friends with love, brilliance and 20-20 vision. In his tough-tender first novel, The Catcher in the Rye (a Book-of-the-Month Club midsummer choice), he charts the miseries and ecstasies of an adolescent rebel, and deals out some of the most acidly humorous deadpan satire since the late great Ring Lardner.
added by vibesandall | editTime (Jul 16, 1951)
 
Holden's story is told in Holden's own strange, wonderful language by J. D. Salinger in an unusually brilliant novel.
added by vibesandall | editThe New York Times, Nash K. Burger (Jul 16, 1951)
 

» Add other authors (77 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Salinger, J. D.primary authorall editionsconfirmed
Avati, JamesCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Östergren, KlasTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Böll, HeinrichMitwirkendersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Fonalleras, Josep MariaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Judit, GyepesTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Mitchell, MichaelCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Riera, ErnestTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Saarikoski, PenttiTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Schönfeld, EikeÜbersetzersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Schroderus, ArtoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Schuchart, MaxTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Zhongxu, SunTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Epigraph
Dedication
To my mother
First words
"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want the truth."
Quotations
I'm quite illiterate but I read a lot.
You don’t have to think too hard when you talk to teachers.
I do not even like ... cars... I’d rather have a goddamn horse. A horse is at least human, for God’s sake.”
I always pick a gorgeous time to fall over a suitcase or something.
The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody'd move.... Nobody'd be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Story of Holden Caufield with his idiosyncrasies, penetrating insight, confusion, sensitivity and negativism. Holden, knowing he is to be expelled from school, decides to leave early. He spends three days in New York City and tells the story of what he did and suffered there.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it. There are many voices in this novel: children's voices, adult voices, underground voices-but Holden's voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.

J.D. Salinger's classic novel of teenage angst and rebellion was first published in 1951. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923. It was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It has been frequently challenged in the court for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and in the 1950's and 60's it was the novel that every teenage boy wants to read.
Haiku summary
Boy in funny hat
Wanders around N.Y.C.
Phonies everywhere.
(Christopher451)
A quoi bon la vie. Ses chemins nous mènent au trou. Attrape mon coeur!
Bottle up your grief.
Men do not have emotions.
Lie until you die.
(alsocass)
Holden's lost in youth,

Catcher in the rye unfolds,

Searching for his truth.

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Hachette Book Group

3 editions of this book were published by Hachette Book Group.

Editions: 0316769487, 0316769177, 0316769533

Penguin Australia

2 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.

Editions: 014023750X, 0241950430

 

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