Mark David Chapman who murdered John Lennon, had a copy ( or requested it once in prison, I can’t recall.) of **Catcher in the Rye **.
David Hinckly, who tried to kill Reagan, also had a thing for this book. Sorry, no link or cites as this is fresh out of some dark corner of my mind and something that I’ve pondered periodically over the years.
Related, but it is only Hollywood, in **Conspiracy Theory ** Mel Gibson’s character had several copies of CITR.
What is, if there is any, connection with crack pots and this book? Why the obsession?
Err, no offense, but have you read it? The entire book, as I see it, is about how Holden Caulfield feels completely alienated and disconnected from the rest of society. “Nutjobs” like you mentione can probably relate.
I tend to agree with obfusciatrist on this one, but in general will add that Catcher in the Rye has “crossed over” from being merely a novel (or an extended short story, IMHO). It has evolved into a concept – in other words, in common conversation, CitR = alienation + innocence in the face of a “phony” society.
Even people who have never read it can translate references to it into this concept, just like people who haven’t read or seen Romeo and Juliet understand that it represents tragic love. So if CitR has become more of a cross-over icon than an actual novel, it is no surprise that people who feel alienated hold it up as a symbol of their internal struggles.
Salinger’s reclusiveness certainly added to how the book is perceived - i.e., take one book that (to a lot of people) captures the voice of an alienated teenager, add some stories associated with suicide and intellectual alienation, then stir by disappearing. A recipe for becoming an icon for the disillusioned.
I don’t know J.D. Salinger, have never met him or talked to him, and know very little about him, beyond the fact that he’s a recluse and several family members (plus an old flame) say he’s a weird guy.
But frankly, I can’t blame him for being a recluse. Even if he were the most normal, sane man on Earth, he’s in an unenviable spot: EVERY nut job on Earth thinks Salinger is the one person who understands him! Salinger probably gets “fan” mail that makes Steven King’s “Misery” look like mighty tame stuff.
Personally, I’ve read the book when I was in high school, and never much liked it. Indeed, most of my friends read it too, and we all agreed that the most amazing part was when Holden Caulfield spends the night at… Port AUthority, I think, or maybe Grand Central Station.
To New York teens in the 70s, the idea of spending the night at EITHER place seemed bizarre and terrifying (both spots are a lot cleaner and safer now than they were in the 70s, of course!).
IIRC, Will Smith’s character in Six Degrees of Separation delivers a rather mesmerizing monologue on this very topic at a dinner party. [hijack] It’s a very enjoyable movie based on the award-winning play, and Will Smith’s best (and first) role to date, IMHO, though he used a body double in (spoiler censored for your protection). [/hijack]
I’m a little hazy on the substance of Smith’s character’s speech, but I remember his identifying a sinister undercurrent to the “alienation+innocence in the face of a ‘phony’ society” that Wordman pointed out.
Lots of people have it as their favorite novel. A bit like they like Kipling’s “If”. Mainly, people too cool to like “Jonathan Livingstone Seagull”, but not cool enough to have read and preferred other Salinger works like “Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters” and “For Esme with Love and Squalor”.