The Catcher in the Rye
By J.D. Salinger
Back Bay Books, 9780316450867, Nov 2018, 288pp.
The Short of It:
Read back in high school and re-read today for book club, and it’s just as wonderful as I remembered.
The Rest of It:
The Catcher in the Rye is of course, a classic. Everyone’s heard of it but I’ll tell ya, not everyone will love it. Why? Because Holden Caulfield is a piece of work! Tossed from private school for failing nearly all of his classes, Holden goes on a three day sabbatical from life. Delaying the inevitable, when he has to return home to his family for the holidays and clue them in to the fact that he has once again been kicked out of school.
Holden packs up his belongings, smokes a lot of cigarettes and ponders life as he hits bar after bar, considering his options. He’s underage but wise beyond his years so he goes from place to place making observations and hoping, longingly for people to spend time with him. He makes a few calls. Meets a few friends. Feels a bit homesick for his baby sister Phoebe, but mostly just flits from one interaction to the next, lost.
Holden is ALL of us. That’s what makes this such a good read. His insecurities are balanced by his overblown opinion of himself. Minus the bluster, the fancy hat, the cigarettes and booze and what you have is a teenage boy desperate for love. His loneliness screams at you while turning those pages.
Funny story. When I was pregnant with my first child, the name Holden was a frontrunner. We decided to go with Evan, instead. But after reading this classic again, my son really IS Holden in real life. I highlighted many passages because they could have actually come right out of my son’s mouth. I shared this observation with him and he wasn’t impressed or compelled to read the book. See? He is Holden.
What stays with me after reading this book is Holden’s voice. Salinger creates this living, breathing, sometimes seething Holden. He’s not the most well-liked guy but he can be charming, and often is, when not overcome with loneliness and doubt.
If you haven’t read this classic, or you read it long ago. I mean, I was 16 the last time I read it, I highly recommend you pick up a copy.
Source: Borrowed
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Book Chatter 
You inspired me. Like you, I read sometime in high school. I’m making it my next read.
I remember reading this in high school and not loving it, but I wonder what I would think of it now with the wisdom of life behind me.
A lot of adults still do not enjoy Catcher. Holden comes off as a little brat most of the time but in between those moments there is such sadness and loneliness. I don’t know, he is a tragic figure to me.
Yes I should reread it again. It was long ago when I read it and I loved it then. He meets a lot of phonies along the way. The voice is wonderful in the book and is what makes it so timeless and a classic. He writes: “This is all I know about the Egyptians.” … on his exam at the beginning. It still cracks me up.
Yes!! The Egyptian thing kills me because he was saying it like it was, but still. I appreciate sarcasm though. It’s a lost art form, reall.
Perspectives on books we read in high school can change too. I know mine did on certain books.