Right on time | The Catcher in the Rye

Will stick with you | The Catcher in the Rye | J.D. Salinger

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	• The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger Back Bay Books, 2001 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 2776 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The place where the youth novel was born

Because this is one of the most heavily reviewed books on Amazon, I will not at this late date attempt to do a comprehensive review. I'll merely focus on one reason this is such an important book and then comment on one odd yet persistent misreading of the novel.

First, this is the first novel that was written with the narrative voice of a disgruntled youth. In fact, one of the most amazing developments in the 1950s was the birth of Youth. Before the fifties there was no sharp chasm dividing young and old. There were, of course, differences between being young and being older, but the main difference was mainly that you were merely younger, not that you embraced a completely different culture. CATCHER IN THE RYE anticipated everything that was about to happen in youth culture within the next few years. No novel had been written in slang before, at least not in youth slang. You would be a very rich man or woman if you could count the number of times that Holden says something like "I'm not kidding" or "I can't stand it." Salinger's genius for maintaining a consistent narrative voice from beginning to end is unquestionably one of the novel's greatest claims to fame.

The second thing I wanted to mention is the rather bizarre turn that so many people consier Holden Caulfield a hero. If anything is clear in the novel, it is that Holden is a profoundly troubled, disturbed, emotionally stunted and sick individual. The events he narrates are cleary done so in a mental health institution. For all his railing against phonies, no one in the book is as phony as Holden. To appropriate the language of existentialism, he lives a completely inauthentic life. But sadly the only person who calls him on the pathetic existence he is living is his teacher that Holden suspects of making sexual overtures near the end. But clearly the events in the novel presaged some kind of emotional collapse. Holden at age 17 in the mental institution writes about significant events leading up to his collapse at age 16. That anyone could view Holden as a role model or a hero is unfathomable.

I reread this because I'm about the read the Frank Portman novel KING DORK, in which CATCHER IN THE RYE features prominently. I had not read CATCHER since college, but I was pleased to discover that it was as excellent as I remembered it being. I wouldn't rate it as one of the greatest books that I've read, but it is unquestionably one of the most important American novels of the past century.

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Right on time

What was reported of the book by the seller was true and was delivered on time.

Will stick with you

This is the kind of book that people of all ages remember their whole lives. It's indescribable how the story can sweep you off into Holden's life, the angst he feels, and the time in which he lived. Truly a great work that is worth reading if you have not and worth reading again if you have.

Ever since it was first published in 1951, this novel has been the coming-of-age story against which all others are judged. Read and cherished by generations, the story of Holden Caulfield is truly one of America's literary treasures.

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