At least that explains why you hate it. I’m the exact opposite - if the best you can tell me about a piece of writing is that it has a good plot, then you can guarantee I’m not going to be interested in it. That’s why James Bond will never be considered a classic.
Stories are essentially about people (or robots, if you like robots, but in these cases robots are surrogate people). If you can write a good character, it doesn’t matter if nothing happens. There’s only 7 plotlines (or maybe even only two), but 6 billion people in the world. Plots are boring, but people are fascinating.
And most of the time, weird stuff doesn’t happen to people. People often don’t grow, they don’t change, they don’t triumph. Catcher isn’t a lesser book because Holden decays. It’s better, and more interesting for it.
At a guess, I’d say that you hate Seinfeld, then?
Ruby, I’d like to sit in on one of your classes. I can tell you’re a gifted teacher! (By the way, I loved everything JD Salinger put a pen to).
I can see where kids would have a harder time relating today if they didn’t have a good teacher to help them. I mean, Holden is from such a different time. It was a time when parents really didn’t help kids get through grief. You just buck up and take what life hands you. Unfortunately, Holden couldn’t handle it alone.
Everyone I know who read it back in the 60s or 70s loved it. It seems the younger generation doesn’t even want to like Holden. I never considered him to be whiney. Just tortured.
I like the book.
When I read it, there were many things I could identify with. The feelings and stream of conciousness narrative transcends generations. It’s as relevant today as it was when it first came out.
I consider it a timeless classic.
Personally, I find one of three things importantn in a novel. Theme, Character, and Plot. If a book has (a good) any one of those, I usually consider it to be an ok book. If it two of those integrated/written well, its a good book. All three, its great.
Like Tolkien’s LotR, he had a great plot, a theme of “it is what you want it to be” (which I think is good), and (some) well done characters. Good/Great book.
With Catcher I think Salinger had an excellent character and an equally great theme which makes for a good borderine great book.
My opinion though.
I absolutely loved this book. I read it in my 11th grade lit class. It spoke to me on a number of different levels. No, I didn’t think that Holden was the greatest person, but he was in a situation that I greatly sympathised with in certain ways. The way that he felt disenfranchised by his family, the way that he really didn’t fit in, and such.
Holden doesn’t run away, he is put in a mental institution, thus rendering any discussion about his running away meaningless.
Also, Holden does grow and change in a way; or at least he learns a lesson. Don’t you remember what he thought about as he watched his sister on the carousel trying to reach for the ring?
The fact that this only takes place in one weekend isn’t helped by the fact that Holden is a character who doesn’t look to the future or the past, but focuses on the present. This limits things a little and can be seen at the end when he is talking about what he will do when he re-enters school next year.
As many people (including me) have already said, Holden isn’t whiney. Several supporting arguments for this have been made and I don’t think people are reading them, otherwise they wouldn’t keep saying it.
I read Catcher in the Rye in 10th grade, and enjoyed it a great deal. I am surprised to see that nobody has commented on how every detail seemed to have been thought of.
For example, Sunny the prostitute came from Hollywood. Phoebe’s is also closely tied to the sun (being derived from Phoebus). Phoebe is, in spite of her innocence, a sort of “prostitute in training” in that she likes DB, who is a prostitute, a great deal. She also enjoys sleeping in a prostitute’s bed because it gives her room to “spread out” (I can produce a cite if someone needs it). She even wants to go out west to Hollywood, which is where Sunny comes from and DB went to become a prostitute.
I thought Salinger did an excellent job of showing his thoughts on growing up through these symbols. It didn’t matter that almost none of the characters were likeable; they weren’t supposed to be. This, in my mind, made them seem much more “real” than standard book characters.