The Catcher in the Rye (1951)

I don't really understand what the hype is about this book. It was okay. Interesting, thought-provoking, but just okay. ( )

Absolutely brilliant. Flow of consciousness of an adolescent so authentic that I could imagine teenagers nowadays talking like that (just insert some "likes" in there).

I don't get the negative reviews. To the person who said that she wanted to slap Holden around and tell him "to grow up" - this is a snapshot of two days in the life of a teenager, not a growing-up story. Holden Caulfield is smart but completely lacks direction in his life. He has problems "applying himself" because he feels alien in his world - he is not a kid any more but he is lost at who he is. He is self-conscious and inept at socializing. What he has is creativity and imagination - qualities discouraged in the boarding-school environment. He is incisive and insightful when observing others, especially identifying "phoniness" - but misses the phoniness in himself until Phoebe reflects his own foolishness back onto him - and she can't explain her as a phony, like he does with everyone else.

This book gets slammed for teenage-angst, cursing, acting out and booze. For Chrissakes, isn't it obvious that this kid is trying everything for the first time? He tries them, all right, and he quickly finds out the downside of the adult excesses. He is all talk - he doesn't go through with any "bad stuff". He hires a prostitute, but he is just lonely and wants a conversation, and is scared to death to do anything to her. He learns quickly what happens when you get mixed up with prostitutes... and when crooks lie to you. He buys booze, and gets drunk. He talks like he does this all the time, but he doesn't recognize the symptoms of hangover because it is the first time he is hung over. He makes mistakes in every conversation. All the cursing.... is posing. He gets really upset when he finds curses in his kid sister's school. Holden is a good kid, but one who is brighter, more sensitive and is affected by teenage alienation much harder than other kids around him. Underneath all the nonchalance, he is just trying to protect himself from the world... from all the conversations he has to have. He'd rather hide in a cabin and become a deaf-mute. Then all the conversations would end.

Some of the characters in the book, I have met them. I have had the conversation with the self-absorbed guy would always talk about things he didn't like, so we asked him what he liked - and he couldn't think of one thing. The guy who is intellectual and likes to ask personal questions about everyone so he can be the smartest in the room, but "gets sore" when you ask him similar questions back - like "he is afraid that someone else will say something smarter than him" - I know that guy. I know the girl who would keep you standing and would block the traffic "for like a thousand years". I know the teacher who would be concerned about your future. I know the guy who would be laying it on the girl in the bar. Those characters are timeless.

This is an easy read, both style and length-wise. I also adore that it doesn't chew anything for you. Just tells it how it is. Even tells you that whatever is left out was because he wasn't interested in talking about that. If you are a teenager - have been one - or have talked to one - you know that's how a teenager feels. What's the point of talking about boring stuff? Talking when you don't feel like it?

Many claim this as a life changing book. I don't subscribe to that. Yes, it is universal. Most of us have experienced a phase of searching for answers, not fitting in, feeling like a weirdo, feeling like "everything is phony". So yes, most of us can relate to it. But this book has no answers. Just a teenager telling how it feels like to be a teenager. Think about it. ( )

Finally only read this as an adult. It would have had a greater impact had I read it as a teen. ( )

Heart-warming, and thought-provoking at times. Can't understand for the life of me why Mark Chapman claimed it inspired him to kill John Lennon. ( )

If you don't read this as a junior in high school and *aren't* deeply affected by it, then clearly you need to either lay off or take up drugs. No truer words about the teenaged psyche have ever beeen written. ( )