My feelings exactly. I actually didn’t read the book until I was in my early twenties, but I felt that it captured the thinking of someone in the mid-teenage age group perfectly. Finding silly excuses to be annoyed by everybody, making up absurd plans to run away and start a new life somewhere else, etc…
Agree w/ the above, but I would take it a step further. You kind of have to have read it when you were younger and more confused and not knowing where your life was going.
I think the same thing about “On the Road” and “The Drifters,” although they certainly had a more positive spin on being confused about life.
I thought “Nine Stories” and F & Z both were better than CITR.
I always thought Holden was insane simply because he hated movies. People who hate movies are insane. I liked him otherwise, though I often wanted to yell at him.
Of course he’s dry and sophomoric. He’s a punk-ass teenage kid, profound one minute, and full of utter bullshit the next.
You might as well finish the book. Then at least you’ll know what people are talking about when they reference it.
I loved it, but it doesn’t mean you will.
But, anyways, finish it. It’s a great book, and I find that all of Holden’s stupidity and emoting just make him more real and more interesting. I don’t need every character to be six foot, blond, with a James Bond wit and an equally James Bond way with the ladies to like them.
Hmmm… D’yer reckon Holden and Hamlet would have gotten on well?
Franny and Zooey made a lot more impact on me than CITR, which always struck me as well… stupid. I must have been one of those teen that “skipped” the stage where I could identify with Holden’s whining?
Anyway, F&Z is about (for me) how sometimes it really sucks to be smarter than average. You might end up learning too much, too soon about things, and then thinking about those things much too hard.
I finished it last night. More than anything, I did so because I was 3/4 of the way through it. VERY anti-climactic. The diction, IMHO, was the only real redeeming quality, and I think even that was overdone.
That said, I can relate to Holden Caufield in many instances, just because I’ve been there. Hell, I’m there now.
All in all, not bad, but clearly not great.
It is a great book, it is great because it is nothing, it has no story and barely anything happens. We are led to believe a story must have a begining a middle and an end, this book does not.
It is hillarious and ironic and very few people seem to be able to grasp that. It is not a profound text and this is what is so profound about it. It is a rant in a way.
I agree this novel strikes a chord with anyone who has ever protested the inexorable slide into the moral decay that is adulthood–for anyone who finds repugnant the general phoniness that surrounds so-called grownup activities like sex, work, and overall social ladder-climbing–for anyone who wishes to preserve the unfeigned innnocence of a child who sings while walking on the curb of a busy street. The casual narrative voice belies the depth of its message.
And Francesca, I’m glad I cast you as Phoebe. It’s a perfect fit.
I teach Catcher in the Rye, which means I have now read it aloud from cover to cover 7 times now, not counting the other times I’ve read it previously. I know the goddam thing by heart now. It’s a great book to teach to 17 year olds b/c many of them identify with Holden’s feelings of meaninglessness, alienation, the paradoxical intense loneliness and hatred for all human beings.
[lecture]
The key to understanding Catcher is recognition that the book is the story of how Holden has been unable to get through his grief for his dead brother Allie. Throughout the novel, we see Holden falling or dropping things or talking about the falls of others-- the novel is Holden’s final spiral into a nervous breakdown.
Allie died when Holden was, 13; he was close enough to Allie and old enough to grasp the finality of death, unlike Phoebe, but he’s not old enough to cope with death and make sense of it. As a result, Allie’s death destroys Holden’s concept of a meaningful or just or rational universe. All he can understand is that someone he loved, who was a genuinely good, smart, sweet, one-of-a-kind person, could die so young, horribly, in pain, for no good reason. This inability to understand destroys his ability to form meaningful relationships, to think about the future, and to love himself (he suffers from serious survivor guilty).
If you can view the entire novel as Holden’s increasingly desperate and unsuccessful attempts to cope with Allie’s death and find solace in a cold, screwed-up world, you might have more compassion for him and his negative and contradictory worldview.
[/lecture]
Can you tell I love this book?
I disagree with BuckleberryFerry about either hating or loving the book - count me as another book for “eh, nothing thrilling, nothing awful, kind of boring”. I wouldn’t recommend to someone they pick it up in the first place.
However.
I’m pathologically unable to put down a book without finishing it - unless I truly loathe it. I’d say, you are 3/4 of the way through already, so you might as well finish that sucker. You’ve put in the time, logged the ennui, you might as well read how the ending is written and be able to say you’ve finished it.
This thread has inspired me to read it again. I think I’ll do it all. Tonight.
I love that book.
uch… if you’re alread 3/4 through, finish the damn thing. you never know when it’ll come up in the future. since it’s so darn famous chances are you’ll be able to put the knowledge to good use. (meaning it’ll enable you to bash the book and allow you to back your statements 
)
If nothing else I found it an amazingly easy-to-read book - I’m surprised you need to ask about finishing it (I think I read it in 2 sittings!)
That said - I read 3-4 books at once just so I can switch when I feel the need 
TTFN
JP
The only good part of that book was when Holden talked about seeing 39 Steps with his sister. 39 Steps is my favorite Hitchcock movie.
The only thing I knew about the book before I read it was that Salinger used the ::gasp::F word! in it which got it banned from several school libraries. Whoopty-do. I heard worse than that on the bus in middle school.
The one thing that book showed me was how little patience I have for whining bastards like Holden Caulfield. It joins the short list of books I’ve tossed across the room when I finished. It may be the only book I’ve drop-kicked, too.
I’m never getting those four hours back. I want them back.
Short answer…finish reading the book. It’s a short book to begin with and you’re 3/4 done.
I read the book when I was a teenager in the fifties. (Yes, I’m old!) Loved it then. Still do, although not as much. The book concerns itself with the youth of the 40’s and 50’s, their speech, mannerisms, take on life, attitude, etc. Upon re-reading “Catcher” a few years ago, I found it stilted and dated. A good book but not as geat as I first found it to be.
An interesting aside is Salinger’s account of how he named his main character “Holden Caulfield”. Salinger says that he was in the midst of writing the book and had not come up with a name that “felt” right when one day in the late 40’s he happened to be strolling down Broadway when he came upon a movie marquee announcing the movie Dear Ruth starring William Holden and Joan Caufield. As luck would have it (or star power) William Holden was listed above Joan Caulfield and voila he had his name.
By the way, if you are an aficionado of old movies Dear Ruth is a gem. Besides Holden and Caulfield it stars veteran character actors: Mona Freeman, Edward Arnold, Billy De Wofle and Mary Phillips. American Movie Channel and Turner Classic Movies feature it often.
People always say Holden is whiny. I don’t see it. I see him bitching a lot, I see him making unwarranted judgements, I see him exaggerating and going off on rants, but not whining. However, I also feel a lot of sympathy for him. His favorite person on the planet died horribly when he was 13, and no one has even tried to reach him since then. Instead, he was sent to boarding school and the tender mercies of other teenaged boys. No small wonder he’s depressed and pissed off all the time.
JMO, YMMV.
<hijack>
Superdude mentioned in his initial post that the man who killed John Lennon had CATCHER IN THE RYE in his pocket when he killed him. I’ve heard that it’s been the favorite book of other murderers as well. Can anyone at all think of a reason why? I’ve read the book three times now, and I don’t think I’m any more likely to kill people now than I was before.
</hijack>
Perhaps it’s the fact that Holden was so misunderstood and many serial killers feel misunderstood? WAG!
Put it down now, Superdude. IMO, it is the second most overrated piece of shit in the English language. (Romeo & Juliet is the most overrated piece of shit for those who are curious.)
I disagree, TPC. I think Romeo and Juliet is the epitome of romance.
Teenybopper checking out.