Oh, man, I loved that book – read it between 6th & 7th grade (a looooong time ago). Maybe because I grew up in Florida and went through the Cuban Missle Crisis, it was easy to imagine the events. Also the first place I learned not to release goldfish into the wild, because they grow to be the size of volkswagens, or something. (Funny how I remember that from almost 40 years ago.)
Good grief. I loved Dandelion Wine.
Bwa ha ha! I actually got a kick Out of Story of My Life. I wasn’t sure anyone else had ever heard of it, though. Interesting parallel you draw there, though. I think the different for me was that *Story * had some parts that were humorous, whereas I found *Catcher * humorless. If you can’t laugh at your angst, what do you have???
I haven’t read it, but this collection of critical essays on Catcher sounds like it would make an interesting read.
The semi-domesticated park pond ducks here in Montana don’t even fly south for the winter. I’ve seen them huddled together atop the ice on the pond when it was 20 below. I can’t imagine that the ducks in Central Park would leave, either. Which is moot, anyway, since Holden was more concerned about the fish.
Personally, when I read it (just this last summer, actually), I kept finding myself wanting to like Holden. But I just couldn’t. He’s the phoniest of the phony, and therefore the most hypocritical of the hypocrits. Yes, he’s had a rough life, especially with his brother’s death, and I felt for him on that, but I just couldn’t feel with him.
On the other hand, you have to realize: It takes skill, and a lot of it, to create a character like that. None of the hacks and page-dumpers mentioned in this thread could have done it if their lives depended on it. You can say that you don’t like Salinger or his work, you can even say that Catcher is not a good book, but you really can’t say that Salinger is not a good author.