The Catcher In The Rye

"Sometimes I act a lot older than
I really am. But people never notice it.
People never notice
anything."

Title: The Catcher In The Rye

Author: J.D. Salinger

First Published: 1951

Series: Stand Alone

Genre: Classic, Coming-of-age

Available As: Hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook

My Rating: 8/10

Goodreads Summary:

Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent." Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins,"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them."His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.

Chosen Quote:

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.”

Holden Caulfield, the depressed teenager who doesn't ever want to grow up. The Catcher In The Rye is a coming of age novel, and focuses on Holden's life, and how his actions affect the people around him and himself.

Holden really reminds me of Peter Pan, in some ways. Holden's afraid to grow up; he doesn't want anything to change. He'd prefer if everything stayed the same. He also hates all people, and would rather stay away from them. He calls everyone else 'phonies', when he is one.

The ending is very thought-provoking. Who knows if the story is really even true? How do we know he wasn't lying the whole time? The beauty of this book is that you never really know what happens, especially when Holden stated that he was a terrific liar.

So, what do I think of Holden? He's a very complex character, and only some can really relate to him. Well, I guess we all can relate to him, if we tried. He doesn't want to grow up. That's something we all feel, every once in a while.