The Catcher In The Rye (general discussion)
Talk J.D. Salinger: Author In The Rye
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1D_B_J
A thread for discussion about J.D. Salinger's 1951 novel. How old were you when you first read it? I read it for the first time when I was 14 and aboard a bus, returning home from visiting a friend who lived in a neighboring state. I didn't know much about the book before reading it--only that it was "controversial." The maroon cover and the title didn't reveal much either, adding to its mystery. I also wasn't used to an adolescent character who swore so much... even the young-adult fiction of the 1970s that I'd consumed heavily, often featuring grown-up themes, didn't feature kids who cursed like Holden does (though I later realized that the influence of his voice could be heard in many of the characters and books I'd encountered in the YA world of that era, such as Paul Zindel's The Pigman).
After finishing Catcher I hit the local Dalton's and Walden bookstores at the mall my family frequented and bought Nine Stories, followed in quick succession by the Bantam paperbacks for Franny And Zooey and Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters And Seymour: An Introduction. As a teen I was a bit slower to warm to the Glass family stories in comparison to Catcher and Nine Stories, but they're now what I reread the most in the Salinger canon. (And in fact the only paperback I retain from my 14-year-old days is my time-worn, well-thumbed copy of Raise High/Seymour.) Still, it's Catcher that remains Salinger's best-known and most-loved book, and I continue to reread it every several years or so, marveling all over again at Holden's voice, the dialogue, the panorama of characters that he encounters, and how Salinger made two days of wandering around New York City into such a compelling story.
After finishing Catcher I hit the local Dalton's and Walden bookstores at the mall my family frequented and bought Nine Stories, followed in quick succession by the Bantam paperbacks for Franny And Zooey and Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters And Seymour: An Introduction. As a teen I was a bit slower to warm to the Glass family stories in comparison to Catcher and Nine Stories, but they're now what I reread the most in the Salinger canon. (And in fact the only paperback I retain from my 14-year-old days is my time-worn, well-thumbed copy of Raise High/Seymour.) Still, it's Catcher that remains Salinger's best-known and most-loved book, and I continue to reread it every several years or so, marveling all over again at Holden's voice, the dialogue, the panorama of characters that he encounters, and how Salinger made two days of wandering around New York City into such a compelling story.
2RLPatriot
The Catcher is my #1 All Time novel. I have always said that Holden's mission in life and mine are exactly the same--only Holden has given up on his; I have not. That mission is to not just "keep kids in their field" (or preserving their innocence) but trying to show them the VALUE in doing so. Not growing up too fast, not "selling out" so quickly to what is popular, monetarily beneficial, or inauthentic. Holden to me is the ultimate "old soul" as his cherishing of the memory of Allie, Jane, the museum brings with it an aura of nostalgia that so many of us have in our lives with our own memories. "G.D. money, it always ends up making you blue as hell" and "somethings should just stay the hell the way they are" are lines that I constantly come back to throughout so many discussions in my life (paraphrased I'm sure rather than quoted).
Last summer, I had the opportunity to go to Princeton University's Special Collection library (open to the public not like I had some kind of special access) and read through their Salinger files. In it are the preliminary drafts of "chapters" that became The Catcher in the Rye and it was surreal. Typos, notes, authentic typing paper and the raw writing of what would become this novel made me feel as though I was getting a glimpse into what would become one of the most iconic novels not only in American Literature (plenty of those), but a novel, concept, theme, that would have such a significant impact on my life, my philosophy, and how I view the world.
Last summer, I had the opportunity to go to Princeton University's Special Collection library (open to the public not like I had some kind of special access) and read through their Salinger files. In it are the preliminary drafts of "chapters" that became The Catcher in the Rye and it was surreal. Typos, notes, authentic typing paper and the raw writing of what would become this novel made me feel as though I was getting a glimpse into what would become one of the most iconic novels not only in American Literature (plenty of those), but a novel, concept, theme, that would have such a significant impact on my life, my philosophy, and how I view the world.
