Classics | Book Chatter

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
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Pride and Prejudice
By Jane Austen
Penguin Classics, 9780143105428, 2009, 352pp.

The Short of It:

This beloved classic has finally been read by me. Any surprises? No, but I am glad to finally mark this one off my list.

The Rest of It:

If you’ve read the book or seen the movie, then you know that the Bennet sisters, all five of them are in some stage of being married off to suitable gentleman. Well, Mrs. Bennet HOPES for them to find suitable matches, men who will provide for them and allow them to live a respectable, if not wealthy life. Men of means.

I think perhaps this aspect of the story is what’s kept me from the book all these years. I’ve tried to read it a handful of times and always put it down a few chapters in. It seemed too frivolous and a tad too pleasant. All this “finding a man” business. However, this made for a VERY enjoyable story to read during a pandemic.

Plus, Mr. Darcy. The disagreeable Mr. Darcy if you ask Elizabeth Bennet. Anyone reading the book knows within two mentions of his name that he won’t be disagreeable for long. What made this book even more fun is that my daughter and I watched the movie as soon as I finished the book. I did not have access to the miniseries with Colin Firth so we opted for the Kiera Knightly movie which we both enjoyed quite a bit.

There are no surprises with the story. It’s pretty much what I imagined but timing is everything and reading it now was so much more enjoyable than all my previous attempts. I dare say, that I may attempt another Austen. If so, which?

Source: Purchased
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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