The Catcher in the Rye
by J. D. Salinger
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Book Reviews of The Catcher in the Rye
Book Review: Not at all what I expected
Summary: 5 Stars
A few days ago, I was reading the blog of Roger Simon, on the occasion of J.D. Salinger's passing. Simon was going to school at Dartmouth, near where Salinger lived in New Hampshire, and he really wanted to meet the writer. He managed to get as far as the great man's front door, before being turned away by a girlfriend. In response to the short blog entry, I noted that I've read many books, but never The Catcher in the Rye, for whatever reason. Every time someone tries to explain the book and why it resonated with them, I just get annoyed. It makes me want to read the book less.
So I commented on Roger's blog article, and joked that I'd probably prefer a Pastrami in the Rye to The Catcher in the Rye. I have a thing for Langer's. Anyway, Roger then wondered if anyone had read Catcher recently, or wanted to now having not read it in the past. A few days later I when I was out and about, I idly went to a used bookstore, discovered they were out, went to a second one ditto, and wound up buying one of the few copies left at the local Borders. It's been a couple of days, and now I've read the thing. It wasn't at all what I expected, and I didn't relate to Holden at all...but I still think it's a brilliant book, just not for the reasons that everyone else (or those I've read, anyway) seem to think it's great.
For those of you familiar with music, Randy Newman is probably best known for the song "Short People." It's about prejudice and how stupid prejudiced people are. Newman famously has gotten sick of various lunkheads yelling "Hey Randy, short people suck!" at him randomly on the street. He deliberately chose a characteristic that would be beyond prejudice, even semi-intelligent prejudice, and found that people were much more stupid than he thought, and that the song, as a result, resonated with a lot of people it wasn't supposed to.
With The Catcher in the Rye, I get the same impression. I don't think this was supposed to resonate with anyone. If I understand it correctly, the book was written for adults, and only after a good long while was it assigned to children. It resonates with teenagers in many ways, because a lot of kids when they're that age feel aimless and alienated. The problem with taking the book literally is that *no one* at least as far as I'm concerned was ever as alienated as Holden Caulfield. It's as if Salinger wanted to exaggerate the unattractive qualities of this kid, with the intention of making a main character so objectionable that no one could like him or take his story seriously, and everyone would get the message that this sort of alienated behavior is beyond the pale. No wonder the guy exiled himself for 50 years. No one understood his book...either that, or I misread it completely.
So, for those of you who haven't read the book, this is a synopsis of the plot, though it's mostly a synopsis of the main character because there is no plot. Our hero, or anti-hero really, is Holden Caulfield. He comes from a well-to-do family (at one point he mentions his father's a corporate lawyer, they have an apartment that's half of a floor in a building next to Central Park, he has a grandmother who sends him lots of money for his birthday, etc.) and he's just been kicked out of his third prep school. He left one (because everyone there was a phony; one of his bugaboos is he hates phonies) and was kicked out of the other. This one is called Pencey, and Holden has been kicked out because he just ditched most of the classes and did none of the homework. So he goes back to New York City for the weekend, and just aimlessly horses around for the whole book. At the beginning, when he's telling you what is going to happen, he says he'll tell you about the "madman" weekend he had. You get the feeling that the character's supposed to have written this account as therapy, to try and sort out why he did what he did.
The weekend itself is unremarkable, except for Holden making an ass of himself repeatedly. He goes to various bars and restaurants and tries to order liquor, which he shouldn't be served because of his age. If he gets it he gets drunk and sits there getting annoyed with the people around him in the bar, and silly things about them that irritate him. If they don't serve him alcohol he does the same thing, only he doesn't get drunk doing it. Holden's hyper-critical about everything around him, and spends pages telling you about how he can't stand phonies (almost everyone he mentions in the book is a phony in some respect) and he hates *things*. One of the more annoying (and recognizable) traits of Holden-the-teenager is that he is constantly trying to convince you he's an old hand at things. He repeatedly refers to "when I was a kid" and is always telling you that he "always" does something in such-and-such a circumstance, as if he's been doing this or that for decades. He's the sort of teenager who earnestly tells adults he's very mature...and of course isn't mature at all.
So why did I give this novel five stars? It's brilliantly written. The author adopts Holden's voice and uses it as his own--never breaks character no matter what--for 214 pages. You believe that this little self-important self-absorbed twit is actually writing this book, telling you about what an ass he was during this weekend. I'd always thought that this book was to be taken as the classic coming of age story, but of course Holden doesn't come of age during the course of the book, at all. At most, he gets a little sense smacked into him (figuratively) when he announces to his little sister that he's running away, and she decides to come with him. Holden instead is shipped out to Hollywood, where his older brother D.B. is a screenwriter (who Holden predictably thinks sold out). D.B. keeps watch on him, while he's here in California. Holden the narrator isn't clear about what's going on, but it sounds like his parents sent him to some sort of sanitarium or something, perhaps to help him get his head straight, and he's written this account while there.
I guess what I'm trying to say is this: The Catcher in the Rye is about how screwed up and alienated a kid can be, except the author exaggerated the characteristics past all reality to make his point more forcefully. To my mind, the book is sort of a cautionary tale. If you spend your whole teenage years criticizing everyone and everything around you, you could wind up like this. It's not a pretty picture, though at times the book is very funny.
I have to say then that I'm appalled that this book is taught in high schools as if it's somehow something that teenagers *should* relate to. They shouldn't relate to it, and no one should aspire to he like Holden Caulfield in the least. This book should be read by adults, those who have gotten far enough along in life that they can safely look back at their adolescence and realize what a jerk they were being when they did various things that seemed important at the time. *Then* you might get something out of it, and you'll certainly get a laugh or three.
Book Review: "People never give your message to anybody"..
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me start by saying that I can see why a lot of people wouldn't like this book, especially a lot of people who have to read it for school. To many people, it seems like the typical "teenage angst" kind of book, and it's very easy to think that the whole way through the book. If you learn nothing from this book then you didn't get the meaning behind it - it's a blunt statement, either you agree or you don't. And if you *do* get the meaning behind it, but found it to be boring or repetitive anyway, then that is your opinion. Some people just simply don't like the same books.
I have to admit, when I first started reading Catcher in the Rye I was a bit struck at why it was considered a classic in literature. With me, I started seeing something deeper when I got to the middle of the book. It isn't until you start seeing the same things being repeated that you start to notice. The title of my review is a great example. Holden Caulfield is a prime example of questioning youth. Most teenagers aren't focused on morals, nor do many of them think deeply about what goes on in the world. And the few that do are like Holden; they're confused, lonely, and scared as hell. So the more I read and the deeper I delved into the meanings behind Holden's thoughts and ideas, the more I began to understand. Holden Caulfield isn't just the average 16-year old. He is, yet he isn't. He *thinks* deeper than the average teenager. He's still immature in a lot of his thinking throughout the book but overall his character is just this mass of confusion. He seems confused at a lot of things, at why a lot of people are the way they are, yet he himself isn't perfect. That is what shapes his character. He isn't flawless, and the author, Salinger, clearly brings that out to the reader. Sometimes Holden contradicts himself - a flaw within himself that is telling the readers that he is human. By developing his character in this way, I saw it as a way to make you both like and dislike him. If you liked him too much, you'd have sympathy for him, but if you disliked him enough too, it evens out to where you really just don't feel bad for him. Rather, you're just following along with him. If I felt any kind of sympathy for Holden throughout the book it was when he tried to talk about things but no one seemed to understand where he was coming from, or what he was talking about. With Holden, what he said didn't have to understand. He just wanted to talk. And he never really felt like he was listened to. This is evident every single time he gives a waiter or waitress a message for a musician playing - "People never give your message to anybody". Holden not only is insecure about people not delivering his messages, he *knows* that people won't deliver them. And that is why I feel like Holden repeats a lot of sentences in the book. I feel like the author wanted Holden to keep repeating things, even when he was going "I mean.." because Holden never felt like anyone listened to him to begin with. If he doesn't think waiters or any of the people he talked with listened to him then why would he think his readers would listen to?
One of the things that I noticed, that really brought out an important issue for today, is how neglected Holden seemed to be. The whole time you're reading the book, it's easily clear to see that Holden just wants someone to talk to. The first example was with Ackley, and then with Stradlater, the woman on the subway, to Faith Cavendish, to the three women at the hotel, to cab drivers, to the prostitute, to the nuns, to Sally, to Luce, to his sister Phoebe, and to Mr. Antolini. And the only time that Holden ever felt that anyone was listening to him was when he talked with Antolini. The way that I took it, by the time he had finally gotten to Antolini, he was so burned out and tired from everything - drinking, poor rest, getting sick - but I also felt that he was finally give out mentally too. It's obvious that Holden was tired of the life that is "expected" of humans, of adults, and wanted to find his own way, but people kept pointing out how important things like school really were. When you're a teenager you feel that way, and when others don't listen to you or try to understand, the whole world comes crashing down on you. I can understand why some readers would say that Holden is just another "whiny, rich kid" but even "wealthy" people can have a hard time, mentally. The thing is, BECAUSE he such a well off kid helps this story flow. Because it isn't told from a poor person's point of view, or someone who is considered dumb. It's told from a teenager's point of view that, though he may be well off, is still struggling with the same exact problems that we all face sometime in our life. With Holden, he experienced it when he was young, and that's why this story is so important to society. Because many teenagers still continue to feel this way, and it's up to us to make them feel important and worth something. Another thing I noticed was that Holden is a very anxious person, and he is easily bothered by the smallest gesture if it is given by the same sex. This was the case with Mr. Antolini. Holden literally freaked out and left his house when he woke up to feeling his old teacher's hand on his head. I don't blame him for leaving either, but this tells us something about Holden's character. That he really is "yellow" and that he is quite anxious when it comes to people rubbing him the wrong way.
What I walked away from this book thinking was this: As humans, we seem to be in such a hurry for everything. That we focus so much on media and entertainment and trying to impress others, that we miss the bigger picture, and that's life. We forget that there are others who need help, others that just want to talk, to not be lonely, how Holden was, how a lot of people are. The great thing about this story, is everyone can come away with a slightly different interpretation. For me, it's about direction, it's about finding yourself. It's about helping others, it's about a cry for attention. I think Holden said it best in my favorite part of the book, when he was telling his sister Phoebe about what he wanted to do in life - "I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all..and I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff..I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff..that's what I'd do all day..I'd just be the catcher in the rye..".
Book Review: Caught
Summary: 5 Stars
As an English major and a lover of books, reading and writing, I probably shouldn't admit this...but up until this past week I had never cracked the cover or even read any kind of overview (back of the book blurb or otherwise) of The Catcher in the Rye. It's always been on my "list" to eventually read, but it never climbed up to the top until now.
I don't know if it is/was taught at my High School, but I do know that it wasn't on the required reading list for me in Honors or AP English. I also know that the book was banned for many years and I wouldn't be surprised if there was still a ban (even if unofficial) of it at Viewmont. I decided to do a quick stats check on it being banned and saw that interestingly it has a very divided history. Up until the 80s, it was the most banned/censored book in high schools & libraries. In the early 80s it was paradoxically the "most censored book" and the "second most taught book" in public schools. In situations where it isn't banned outright, it pushes its way into the top 20 list of "most frequently challenged book."
From a super high level reading, I can see where the angst against the book comes from. The book is FULL of profanity from the first page to the last ranging from the more commonplace to the F-bomb. It doesn't help matters that this language is coming from a teenager, the narrator Holden Cawfield. Add to that the fact that this same teenager (and most people he associates with) are constantly smoking and drinking. While there isn't explicit sex in the book, there are numerous high level references to necking, petting and intercourse as well as general explorations of sexuality as a whole. Overall, this is just the sort of book that makes "family values" advocates run for the bonfires.
At the same time, the book is extremely "real" in terms of dealing with the identity crisis and the sort of awakening of self-awareness that happens to teenagers. While I wasn't a swearing, smoking, drinking, sexing teenager (or adult for that matter), I can relate to a lot of things said by Holden. And even though there aren't any earth shattering answers or resolutions given through the narrative, simply exploring these truths rather than brushing them under the carpet is enough to make most teenagers (or anybody who's ever felt alienated, confused, or just anxious about life) able to relate to this book at some level and use it as a launching ground for the basis of their own self-awakening.
The honesty of the narrative voice is refreshing but can also be the cause for some controversy. Most parents or adults don't necessarily want to admit that the youth of the world are struggling with these sorts of issues both in terms of the smoking/drinking/sex and in terms of the emotional and mental anxieties. Whether that's because the adults have suppressed their own anxious memories of their youth or because they don't have any idea how to help their youth through the situations, I'm not sure. But it seems that a lot of times, the adult reaction to "troubled" youth is to just punish them and/or leave them alone and assume that as they mature they'll either turn into upstanding adults and overcome the problems on their own or they'll turn into really bad eggs and end up in prison. Either way, the problem is no longer a threat to society.
There's a lot more I could say about this book, and I haven't even bothered to review it in the same way I've reviewed other recent books, but I think the best thing to say about this book is that it should be read in order to fully digest and understand it. As I mentioned above, there is definitely some content that can be offensive to many readers. However, the way the content is presented feels natural and makes it hard to fault the book or author for its presence but rather just accept the presence as a part of the character you're exploring.
As a parent, I'm a little torn as to when I'd want my kids to read this book. It gets into a sort of maturity conundrum. I'd have some moderate worries that the book could possibly give an immature reader some bad ideas, but if a reader is sheltered from the book until they're "mature" enough to better swallow the concepts, then some of the potential help and insight of the book can be lost. I don't think this book portrays delinquent or rebellious behavior in a positive light by any means. It straddles the fence a little bit with drinking and smoking which is understandable considering the era in which it was written/published (the 40s-50s) but even then, it shows some of the bad effects of these bad decisions.
I think the main thing with this book, as with anything anybody ever decides to approach, is that it should be approached with a grain of salt and with an open mind tempered by mature responsibility. I wouldn't mind seeing this book in my kids' reading list in high school...possibly even junior high. But I'd want to be sure that I (and hopefully the teacher as well, but definitely myself as a parent) discuss with my kids what is to be gained from the book, what is to be learned from the book, and how to poise a reaction to the book. That's not to say that I'd want to brainwash my kids and try to shove propaganda down their throats, but I'd just want to be sure that they (and any reader...yourself included), takes this in (and any book) as something to be learned from but not necessarily emulated.
The Catcher in the Rye is a very intriguing exploration into the psyche of the American teenager (specifically, a male teenager...I'd be curious to hear female reactions) and I think Sallinger hit many of the key teenage issues squarely on the head without coming off as preachy or condescending. Apart from the controversy of the content, perhaps that non-preachy form is another thing that makes society dislike this book. It explores a lot of the problems of teenage life, but never sets for a clear course of action to overcome them...leaving the teenager to figure things out for him/herself. Depending on the support structure of the kid, having all those ideas and issues opened wide could either be very constructive or very destructive. I hope to help my kids with the 'constructive' path when they get around to reading it.
*****
4 1/2 stars
Book Review: Holden Caulfield is America
Summary: 4 Stars
When I read this as a high school sophomore--on my own, no less, not assigned--I thought it was a pretty good tale of a young man like myself. Holden liked to hang with his buddies, smoke and drink, had a marvelous opinion of himself while being viciously disdainful of everyone else, and he was smart, too. He was just like me.
Coming back to this American classic close to thirty years later, my perspective has changed quite a bit. I'm no longer a young man, and Holden is not the cool dude I once recognized. In fact, he's immature, judgmental, dishonest, wasteful, unappreciative and more than anything, pretentious. He's a directionless, self-pitying jerk, and what he needs is a swift kick in the rear from his wealthy, climbing, city-dwelling socialite parents, who are clearly too busy with their own lives to properly rear him or his siblings. He is everything wrong with material success, with its entitlement and the ennui which comes with never being challenged.
More than anything, what hammered me in the forehead from the very first chapter was that Holden Caulfield IS America. In the 1940s, as America became the global giant, here is Holden Caulfield representing every aspect of it. He grows up too quickly and is immature, believing he is not. He is given much of what he has, really never having to work for any of it, and is ungrateful, not realizing what it took to get him where he is. His immaturity leads him to speak far too often when he would serve himself better to be quiet and just listen and learn. He cannot stay with a single task or a long-term project; he has to jump to another and another and another. He derives his self-worth from his shallow and meaningless relationships, which are self-serving, fleeting and often just plain false. He is smitten by Jane Gallagher, but never levels with her, never tells her the truth; he just avoids it. He is directionless, accepts no challenges, and feels no remorse for his mistakes. When he fails, he sees it coming and does nothing, then he rationalizes it away and flees, rather than taking responsibility and making things right. He denounces everyone and everything as pretentious and phony, when that is exactly what he is. He wants to be a grown-up, and play-acts at being one, never understanding what it takes to join that cohort.
Interesting is that both of what today would be called mentors to Holden are people he essentially describes and we see as failures. His old teacher is superficially respected for his knowledge, but Holden sees him as grubby and poor, the unavoidable physical manifestation of his age compromising any real influence he could have on the young man. Mr. Antolini turns out to be a false mentor, a closeted homosexual driven to alcoholism, who attempts to molest the naïve Holden (depending on your interpretation).
Given the period in which it was written and restrictions on publishers, I can understand the book's lack of profanity, but its absence in a boy of 16-17 compromises his character. This was even more so with regard to the lack of sex. Holden was more interested in drinking and smoking than in sex, and I found that as a teenager reading it and again as a 40-something geezer that just doesn't ring true. He talks about it, and mentions it from time to time, but it is not in Holden the undeniable primitive driver that I know it to be.
Fascinating in this book is the absence of World War II. There are a few mentions of men in uniform, but precious little else about the war. Even a teenager's self-absorbed detachment could not escape this oppressive fact from 1939 to 1945 and well after, especially a teenager who soon enough would be eligible for the draft. This can only be a deliberate omission from Salinger, and it is another aspect of the book which I feel compromises it. While any treatment of the war would take this story in many directions other than the main story arc, I believe it is something that has to be addressed here, especially given the book's physical setting in New York City and its conceptual and physical proximity to the European theater.
Now, as for the end. Is Holden really ill, deathly sick with some unspoken malady, from which he emerges messianically at the end? I don't really think so. He fell ill because he wasn't eating, choosing to smoke and drink instead. He passed out and vomited because he hadn't slept in over a day, and was hung over and dehydrated. So what of the extended stay in the hospital? It sure looks to me like it was a forced institutionalization for mental health reasons, a good six months of intensive therapy to give this young man a bit of perspective on what it means to follow through, do what you're told, and exhibit some hardiness, if you're going to succeed.
To wrap it all up, I think every American should read this book. It's easy, it flows effortlessly, and its writing is outstanding. It's a great portrait of upper class life in New York in the middle 1940s, a tale of a maturing teenager, and of the America he inhabits.
Book Review: This book IS different
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been reading many of the reviews on this page, some critical, some positive, and I have condensed the opinions to the following. Those who don't like the book seem to think that the book is disconnected, swears too frequently, or has no plot. Now, I realize that some negative reviewers have differing opinions, and I respect them, because the book is different from most literature, classic or otherwise.Most literature describes an event, using the characters to interact with their surroundings. There is a defined plot, there is a defined theme, the people do normal things, and everybody who reads it gets pretty much the same thing from it. For an example, I'll quickly examine a well-known piece of literature, "A Christmas Carol" by Dickens. I am not going to go into great detail, I am not an expert on this work, but when I say "A Christmas Carol" you see ghosts, kids with canes, and London. If asked "what is it about" you might say, "the redemption of Scrooge" okay great. Everyone agrees, discussion ended.
"The Catcher in the Rye" is not like that. People with literal minds hate books like this, because everyone who reads it, takes something different from it. These people say, "nothing happens, the symbolism was great, but there was no plot". To them I say, "Who cares?". I want to meet the person who declared that every book needs clearly defined plot, theme and grammar, to be good. Writing is about more than following the proper steps. A monkey can be taught to follow steps, a third grade student can learn to fill in blanks. Writing is about communicating. Some critics look at a work of Dickens and say, "Now, there's a good book, that's how writing is to be done. All the concepts are well thought out, the grammar is letter-perfect, and the word choice is outstanding!" And that is great for them, I'm excited that they feel this way, now we know that there is yet another job that a computer can be taught to do, critique literature based on grammar, punctuation and spelling. These rules are rules we give our elementary students so they can be understood when they write. If you want to buy a book, so you can examine grammar and word usage, don't buy this one. Salinger didn't sit down to write a book for his college English professor. If you want to look at his work from that standpoint, then it would be an awful book.
Fortunately for the human race, writing is not about that at all. Writing is not only about being understood, writing is about feeling, writing is about telling another human being, what an experience is like. This is what Salinger has done. He has captured the teenage experience, the anger, the frustration, the disappointment, the feeling of hopelessness, the paranoia, and the feeling of looking out at society and realizing that it's not a nice place to be. Salinger did not write about the idea teenager, if he did, Holden would've sounded like a member of the Brady Bunch "The world is a happy place". Often, people like to rationalize what happened in this book, by saying, "Holden is sick, he is unusual, nobody else goes through this" this is not the case. True, Holden did move to California, apparently to seek some type of counseling, but he is far from unusual, he is truthful to himself, he is telling about the world the way it is, not the way he wants it to be.
In the book, Salinger is communicating to two types of people. On one hand he is telling the people whose lives have been like Holden's that someone understands them. Someone else has been though what you've been through, it's a normal thing. And he is telling the Brady Bunch people "WAKE UP! Take off your rosy colored glasses, the world is NOT one big happy place, at least not for everyone. Yes, somewhere in the distance, there is war and hunger, but there is something more, and it's right next to you. There are people who can't find the most basic human need, the need to be loved and accepted." Holden feels lost and alone, he feels like nobody cares about him, he feels rejected by his family, and he feels hopeless because he everyone and everything he knows either lets him down, or lies to him. This is real life, this is what it's like to have everything not go your way. If you are looking for fairy tale or soap opera, this is the wrong book. You also shouldn't read this book if you are going to use a holier-than-thou attitude and judge everything that is wrong. To read this book, you need to be realistic, and empathetic. This book is about the bad side of life, it can sometimes be hard to follow, and you may reach the end and wonder what happens next. Read it a few times in that case, you may learn that this kind of writing is not about what happens next, it's about what already happened, and most importantly; why?