The Catcher in the Rye
by J. D. Salinger
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Book Reviews of The Catcher in the Rye
Book Review: Ahh Holden, What an Interesting Life You Lead
Summary: 4 Stars
Such a popular,famous or infamous little book depending on your view.Salinger's masterpiece and highly guarded work.A contributing factor in John Lennons'murder maybe,maybe not.Also associated with the Reagan assassination attempt.Why is this I wonder?"The best book ever written in the English language" quoted the salesgirl as I purchased it for my daughter for her high school reading assignment.She said it with such conviction,I think both of us were stunned.I said nothing,just smiled,you know, that smile that conveys "yeah,I know what you mean",too embarrassed to admit,"no kidding,never read it myself".Well read it I did,finally.A book I should have read decades ago. It wasn't required reading in my high school but I think I know why after reading it.It was a fun,fast read and kinda cool following Holden around.Seeing his anguish and disdain for those around him and the institutions he is forced to live within.Highly troubled yes,but you get the sense that he'll be OK in the end.His period of adjustment from a youth to a young man can be seen in his attitude,his choices and his need to be different.Love pangs,sexual urges,smoking,drinking all the rights of passage are explored through Holdens'eyes.It is kind of a warped,more psychiatric version of Ferris Beuller only a fifties version with less phone use,no texting,E-mails, computer use or outside influence from rappers,TV or other idiotic distractions teenagers are bombarded with today.Just pure emotional dilemma which must be resolved from within. I must say I enjoyed it very much,could not put it down for long with each chapter an adventure.What will Holden do now?How is this kid going to handle this one?etc.The sweet portrait it paints is probably wasted on todays youth whom I fear just won't get it.As a reader in my late forties,I could.Rediscovering 'Catcher In The Rye' was refreshing and diversionary. Just enough to take me away and escape to Manhattan for a few days.To be the companion of Holden Caulfield was fun and it will be for you too.Written in a clear,wonderful style as if Holden was talking to me, it is easy to see why this was so popular in its day and hopefully will continue to be read for decades to come by those who love good literature.Book Review: The angst of youth
Summary: 4 Stars
I think that because this was required reading for me in High School when I read it I didn't really absorb it because I felt forced to read something I wasn't really interested in. Maybe because at that point in my life I was into bucking authority so some extent and, ironically much like the main character Holden Caulfield didn't much like school. Now much later in life I decided to read it again to see why this book is still so popular nearly 60 years after it's release.
Salinger was in his late twenties and early thirties when he wrote this book however it's written like a teenager at the time might talk in terms of phrases, sentence structure, though processes etc,. and it's very well written in that respect. It captures the angst and anger of youth, being somewhere between a boy and a man, wanting to be an adult but still having to rely on adults to a certain extent who are making decisions for you that you don't necessarily agree with. This is the life of the books main character Holden Caulfield. Having re read the book I get it now. The story and emotions seemed familiar probably because I could reconcile it to my teenage years. I found Holden Caulfield to be fairly unlikable at times, he thought everything and almost everyone was dumb and then I wondered to myself was that peoples perception of me at times in my youth? At times inn my youth I was like Holden Caulfield in some ways. The last chapter of the book is Holden Caulfield reflecting on his youth . It really brought the book full circle and gives the reader a sense of Holden Caulfield the man being reflective on his youth.
The writing style in interesting because it's written like someone is sitting with you telling a story keeping you involved in the conversation by using phrases like "I told you about that earlier" It's writing in a one way conversational style.
Some of the phrases used in the book are a little Leave it to Beaverish by today's standards. To off set that the God D... words appear a lot in the book really to the point of over use I think. All in all a very good book, I'm glad I took the time to re read it. Perhaps now I have a little better understanding of my youth.
Book Review: truly potrays confused, anxious, rebellious, corruptible, condescend... and many other aspects of a teen age
Summary: 5 Stars
"Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you'll start missing everybody"... these are closing lines of "The Catcher in the Rye", a wonderful novel by J. D. Salinger.
"The Catcher in the Rye" truly potrays confused, anxious, rebellious, corruptible, condescend, careless but caring, carefree but worried... and many other aspects of a teen age.
Holden Caulfield, the central character of the novel, reflects quite a few aspects of my teen days. Indeed, after reading through, you will also feel the same.
"The Catcher in the Rye" is the narration of events that Holden Caulfield went through during three days between expulsion from yet another college Pency and reaching home.
For him everyone was a "phony" and everyone was more "phony" than he imagined.
After expulsion Holden leaves the school, takes a train to New York and stay in a shady hotel for 3 days. He spends an evening dancing with three tourist girls and narrates encounter with a young prostitute "sunny"... rather funny encounter with sunny. He changes the mind as soon as she enters the room. And Holden's schuffle with Maurice, the pimp.
Holden shares his memories with his girl friends or so called... his brother Allie, DB and sister Phoebe. His dreams about job to catch the children, if they come close to the edge of cliff and becomes a "catcher in the rye". His "confused" experience with Mr Antonili, his teacher he admired most. He wakes up in the night to find Mr. Antolini patting his head and perceives as "flitty". He couldn't conclude whether his interpretation of Mr. Antolini action was correct or not.
Holden decides to move out west but somehow stay back after spending sometime with his sister, who also wants to go with him. At the close of the book, Holden decides not to tell anymore and refers that he is sick and being treated at mental hospital....
And also, there is another character pretty much like Holden himself.. "Hunting Hat"..
"The Catcher in the Rye" is considered one of the 100 best English novels of the 20th century and it is one of the best I have read.
-- ashutosh jhureley
Book Review: How do you honestly review a classic?
Summary: 5 Stars
The Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger
What exactly is The Catcher in the Rye? I suppose it's a not-quite-coming-of-age novel, an exploration in alienation, and a post-Freudian experiment. It's also a collection of ramblings from an unreliable narrator. But the digressive and repetitious nature of its language often reads like poetry, not prose; the cadence of the narrative has chips on both its shoulders.
I've read some reviews referring to The Catcher in the Rye as "dated." There's some truth to this. For example, today's teens may not be able to relate to a world populated by phone booths. I know when I read about Holden Caulfield wearing a shirt and tie, I think of some fantasy America before my parents were born. But the themes are not dated. Last I checked, teens still have hormones and are in a constant search for alcohol. They still have problems with girls/boys and with their own emotions. They often feel dark and do dark things. The props might be different, but the teen's world hasn't changed much in fifty-six years.
Perhaps the most dated aspect of the book is its great writing. There isn't much edge and style to popular writing today. Harry Potter has taken over the minds of far too many kids, young adults, and adults. Yet if you were to compare the quality of the writing in The Catcher in the Rye to that of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, you would find the latter laughable. At least, I hope you would.
For me, the best aspect of The Catcher in the Rye is its sustained style. When I read it, I feel a master of language at work. When I read a contemporary bestseller, I am often entertained, but I'm rarely challenged. I consume these books and then discard them, never to look at them again. With The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger has done something unprecedented and fresh. He shows his readers that new writing is still possible, that writing is a craft to be honed and studied. When entertainment and craft come together as well as they do in The Catcher in the Rye, literature is born and reborn. That's what makes this book an indispensable classic and not a disposable piece of genre fiction.
Book Review: Where's the plot?
Summary: 2 Stars
A book that was never assigned to me while in school, I felt deprived of the fact, so I picked it up and read it right after graduating Uni.
I wanted to like the book, I really did. I hadn't the slightest clue of what it was about, just knew it was a highly regarded piece of literature and that it was the book Mark David Chapman was obsessed with when he shot John Lennon.
I enjoyed the writing style. The main character speaks to you directly, as if telling you a story over a cup of coffee. The opening paragraph has got to be one of the most appealing openings to a book I have ever read. When you finally learn what the title of the book means, you wonder why it never caught on as a mainstream phrase like "Catch-22" did.
With that being said, the book really goes no where. It starts off promising; a teenage boy named Holden Caulfield, talking about how he ended up where he currently tells his story from, a rest home he was sent to for therapy. I expected the rest of the book to tell me some horrific tale of terrible events that led up to Holden having to be sent away.
Far from it. We follow Holden through the days following his expulsion from school and him going back to New York to eventually face his parents, who have yet to learn of the news.
That's about it. There's nothing concrete about what causes Holden to end up a 'mad man'. Maybe this book has lost its touch over the years. Holden often talks about what society now considers 'light' subjects, but will interject with a 'could you believe it?' or a 'I swear it's true', or something along those lines, leaving me to chuckle at the fact those particular topics were considered taboo at some point in time. Yet the way Holden speaks, cursing every chance he gets (to the point where characters in the story are constantly telling him to steady off the curse words), would make someone think that he's no stranger to those sort of things.
Some memorable quotes here and there, but overall I wouldn't be bothered recommending the book to anyone.