# Is Catcher in the Rye the worst book ever written? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 9, 2005, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461 "2005-10-09T23:55:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elfbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b782af/32.png) [@elfbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfbabe)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/21 "2005-10-10T01:23:16Z")
It’s often difficult to appreciate books when you don’t really like the main character, moreso when he’s the narrator. And disliking Holden is, IMO, entirely rational. … but yeah, if this is the worst book you’ve ever read, you must not have read much. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/22 "2005-10-10T01:34:09Z")
Not a great book, not a good read but far from the worst. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/23 "2005-10-10T01:50:55Z")
Invariably, people who say this about _Catcher_ didn’t get it. Yes, Holden is a rich boy from a privileged family, so it’s easy to say his whining is annoying and unfounded. However, Salinger makes it clear that Holden is suffering from a severe depression after watching his beloved brother Allie die of cancer, and hasn’t gotten any help dealing with it from his disconnected parents. Despite the fact that he busted out all the windows in the garage with his hand the day Allie passed away, their response was to send him to a succession of boarding schools, where he still failed to see the the point of anything. That’s what the whole book is about, really. You can say you didn’t like the book, but don’t say it’s the “worst book ever written.” Come on, only one person in a billion can pull off hyperbole of that magnitude! ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/24 "2005-10-10T01:54:44Z")
I got two words for the OP: Silas and Marner. I thought Catcher was absolutely fantastic, but I read it when I was 17. I don’t know if I would enjoy it as much today. ---
**Author:** ![Glassy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ea666f/32.png) [@Glassy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glassy)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/25 "2005-10-10T02:47:45Z")
Good God, no. \*\*Listen to Your Heart \*\* by Fern Michaels is the worst book ever written. Fern Michaels makes Danielle Steel look like Nathaniel Hawthorne. Compared to either of them, \*\*Catcher In the Rye \*\* is a work of timeless genius - even if you don’t like ol’ Holden Caulfield very much. Don’t believe me? Go to the library and check out **Listen to Your Heart**. Force yourself to read the whole thing, swallowing down that nasty cold saliva that always comes up with the urge to vomit. It is seriously so bad. So. Bad. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/26 "2005-10-10T02:54:15Z")
I thought the worst book ever written ever was _Football - It’s a Funny Old Game_ by Kevin Keegan. ---
**Author:** ![cerberus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cerberus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cerberus)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/27 "2005-10-10T03:19:15Z")
L. Ron. Hubbard. Worst. Author. Ever. I’d lay odds that LRH’s dreck is even worse than anything written by any hack cast member of Star Trek, including Shatner. ---
**Author:** ![mrunlucky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7993a0/32.png) [@mrunlucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrunlucky)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/28 "2005-10-10T03:24:21Z")
Somehow I don’t think that the worst book ever written would be still in print, often read and examined in schools, and be popular both among younger alienated readers and among the types of people who try to get books banned and removed from libraries and bookstores, year after year. If you want worst books, you’d have to clarify. Worst written? Try Harlequin Romance novels, which are written specifically not to aim above a 6th grade reading level. Worst as in so bad they were self-published? There’s a current commercial going around television by some quack who claims to have “discovered” the cure for diabetes, and so he wrote a book that I’m guessing is some sort of love letter to his dead mother, who had diabetes. And of course, since he “discovered” the cure for diabetes, strangely, no actual publishing house would give him a book deal, so he vanity published. I bet it’s a great read. Full of “facts” too. Worst as in novelizations of movies? Because who wants to watch a _Star Wars_ movie when they could read a novelization of it? Worst as in an author became famous for a book series, and then died, but ghost writers kept the series alive: V.C. Andrews and your ghost writers, I’m looking at you and your lame family-trapped-in-an-attic-for-generations books. Worst as in old pulps that had one print run and then vanished to the realm of attics, garage sales, thrift stores, used bookstores? Books that are so bland and so cliche-ridden, that you read a page and immediately forget what you just read. Worst as in written by an author who is so famous, overrated and ego-bloated that they now write on auto-pilot to collect on a publishing contract, even though you gave up on their books long ago and don’t know anyone who reads them anymore, but apparently, before their next title has even come from the printing presses and to the bookstores, they have their next “best seller”? Worst as in books that get published simply because a famous celebrity wrote some god-awful poetry and is therefore considered a genius? Worst as in books aimed at teenagers, that are insta-biographies of the latest big stars, so kids can learn everything they ever wanted to know about the hottest new celebrities? _Catched in the Rye_ doesn’t come close to any actual worst books ever written, that much I can tell you. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/29 "2005-10-10T03:30:43Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > I got two words for the OP: Silas and Marner. [shudder]That name brings back the horrors of high school literature class. I always hated those classes because, to me, it ruined a book or story to analyze the crap out of it. As for the OP, I tried reading _Catcher…_ several different times during my life and could never get past the first chapter or two. ---
**Author:** ![sishoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3e96dc/32.png) [@sishoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sishoch)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/30 "2005-10-10T03:37:40Z")
My vote for the worst book is _Hit Them Where it Hurts_, a cliche riddled text that unfortunately was all we had to listen to on a vacation trip many years ago. It read like the worst of Mickey Spillane with no suspense whatsoever. I don’t know who wrote it and I’m too lazy to look it up. [Hijack] Speaking of bad literature, has anyone read _Naked Came the Stranger_? I’ve often wondered how bad it was. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/31 "2005-10-10T04:04:27Z")
> [@cerberus](#): > > L. Ron. Hubbard. Worst. Author. Ever. > > I’d lay odds that LRH’s dreck is even worse than anything written by any hack cast member of Star Trek, including Shatner. Hey, I’d rather read L. Ron Hubbard than Stephen King or Michael Crichton. Seriously, there are a couple of LRH books that I genuinely like and would voluntarily read again–_Ole Doc Methusela_, _Slaves of Sleep_, and _Typewriter in the Sky_. OTOH, I won’t voluntarily read King or Crichton again. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/32 "2005-10-10T04:34:29Z")
There are a number of categories of “Worst Book Ever Written.” **Worst Book Ever Written That’s Still In Print** – I think this would have to be something by Dreiser. Although a lot of stuff that was “great literature” in the past wouldn’t pass muster today, I believe Dreiser’s stuff was considered by many critics to suck even when it was first published. **Worst Book Ever Written That Didn’t Get Published** – Now, with the wonder that is PublishAmerica, you might actually get to read this book. Won’t that be fun? **Worst Book Ever Written That Somebody Recommended To You As The _Best_ Book Ever Written** – This will differ, depending on what people have recommended and how strong that recommendation was. I would never give a book to somebody and tell them I thought it was the best book ever written, because sometimes that just raises expectations, you know? The worst book anyone ever gave _me_ with this recommendation was _Bridges of Madison County._ At least it was short. **Works Book Ever Written That You Had To Read For Class** – Once again, this one will depend on what you majored in, but in my case that would be _Herzog_ by Saul Bellow (who is a Nobel prize winner, I believe, for literature, but wasn’t at the time I read him, and I would still have hated the book). For a lot of people in my college peer group it was _Ulysses._ A book, I might add, that I worship. Just to keep people from regarding _Catcher in the Rye_ as the worst teen-age angst book ever written I recommend, as a horrible book, one called _Story of My Life_ by Jay McInerney, which is written as if Holden Caulfield were female and living in the late '80s. You will probably have to get this one used. ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/33 "2005-10-10T04:40:59Z")
> [@phungi](#): > > Salinger only wrote 4 books and then went into a solitude that amounts to life-long hibernation… Caulfield was a “treatment” for the character Seymour who appears in _Nine Stories_ and is referred to in his other two books _Franny and Zooey_ and _Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters and Seymour and Introduction_. Interesting. I have never heard that theory before (Holden=Seymour). I’m not quite buying it yet though. I read once that Salinger regretted killing off his best character in his first story and spent the rest of his writings trying to… er… apologize/ bring him back. I can’t remember it completely. Anyway the fact is Seymour pops up in a couple other Salinger pieces so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in _Catcher_. I’m just not seeing Holden as Seymour though. Could you sell me on it? ---
**Author:** ![thirdname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/34 "2005-10-10T05:27:17Z")
> [@phungi](#): > > Caulfield was a “treatment” for the character Seymour My thoughts were that Holden was a somewhat interesting character, but there wasn’t much to the story. I wondered out loud where the rest of the book was. I haven’t read the others, but if you’re right, than I guess that’s the answer to my question. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/35 "2005-10-10T05:47:03Z")
Ok, but is Catcher in the Rye the most over-rated book? Put another way, what is good about it? Full Disclosure: I read CitR a long time ago and have few feelings one way or the other about it. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/36 "2005-10-10T06:07:25Z")
I’d say it comes close to the most pointless book I’ve ever read. I finally told myself that the point of the book that there was no point just the day in the life of a guy that was disconnected from everything. He couldn’t even come to grips with his own thoughts never mind the world around him. That kid had ADD before there was that diagnosis. Still hated that book. oh I also read it for the first time this year. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/37 "2005-10-10T08:35:39Z")
**Measure for Measure** : The book is about being disconnected from your life, the world around you, and everyone who should care about you. In addition, it’s about rejection, especially rejection of the immaturity of adulthood, coupled with the inability to make good on that rejection. At the simplest level all of that means it’s a book about adolescence and growing up, but it’s really an introduction to existentialism for a country that never had any great experience with that philosophy. It’s also the closest anyone’s ever come to describing low-grade depression (not ADHD) in writing. (Of course, describing this novel as existentialist is absurd: Holden is incapable of responsibility and has abdicated his freedom. He is less a man staring down the empty void than a leaf blown by a careless breeze. Holden is what existentialism becomes if the individual is incapable of defining himself. Moreover, Holden’s rants against ‘phoniness’ are themselves phony. He is no more genuine than anyone else and the children he sees as the essence of truth are just as phony as he is. Holden is grasping towards an external reality which simply does not exist.) It’s great because art should resonate with you and describe some part of the human experience. If you’ve never experienced being utterly alone, this book won’t have anything to say to you and you might as well leave it alone unless you want to analyze it. If you have felt rootless and disconnected, however, this novel will resonate quite deeply and may even become anthemic. There is a reason both John Hinckley, Jr., and Mark David Chapman had a strong connection to this book. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/38 "2005-10-10T09:20:33Z")
Hell no. Try The Dressmaker by Rosalie Ham. It’s an “Australian gothic novel”, whatever the hell that is. And it’s utter crap. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/39 "2005-10-10T09:35:06Z")
> [@Kat](#): > > If _Catcher in the Rye_ is the worst book you’ve ever read, you need to expand your reading material. Actually, if _Catcher in the Rye_ is the worst book he’s ever read, then he’s a very lucky man. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2005, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461/40 "2005-10-10T12:02:11Z")
I don’t know about the _worst_ book I ever read, but pretty damned bad was _Alas, Babylon_ by Pat Frank. It was a by-the-numbers ‘last people on Earth’ fantasy, full of contrived crises and _deus ex machina_ solutions with a dose of cryptofascist ‘philosophy’ thrown in to boot. Maybe it’s because I read the book so close to reading _Earth Abides_ by George R. Stewart, one of my favorite novels and certainly my favorite post-apocalyptic novel, but _Alas, Babylon_ really left a bad taste in my mouth. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-catcher-in-the-rye-the-worst-book-ever-written/325461.md?page=3)