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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
A Matter of Love and Hate
Twelve years ago, my history teacher in High School sang the praises of a book that, in his own words, every adolescent should read at some point.Three days ago, and twelve years later,Santa finally did what I hadn't in all those years,and brought me a copy of The Catcher in the Rye.
I read it in a couple of nights. The first night I felt like someone I had...
Published 11 months ago by BeLa
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
I Missed the boat
I think I was too old when I first read this book. This is a book which should be read in one's late teens, preferably alongside the discovery of Sylvia Plath. It is one of the classic novels of disaffected youth, a young man, lost in his own life, wanders aimlessly making chance encounters which force him to look at his experiences and potentially make meaning out of...
Published 18 months ago by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley
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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
A Matter of Love and Hate , 28 Dec 2008
Twelve years ago, my history teacher in High School sang the praises of a book that, in his own words, every adolescent should read at some point.Three days ago, and twelve years later,Santa finally did what I hadn't in all those years,and brought me a copy of The Catcher in the Rye.
I read it in a couple of nights. The first night I felt like someone I had thought my friend had let me down in some way. I started to suspect that it might be the typical overrated classic.The boy starts a story from some place he's confined in, but he doesn't elaborate. He then starts the telling of what happened last Christmas, which eventually led to his being where he is. As much as I tried, I could find nothing especial there, just the boy and his school mates and troubles and the crazy decision of flee to avoid parental confrotation and an immature teen with a lot ot maturing to do. He most probably would end up doing something stupid and being caught and all. Perhaps it was too late. Perhaps I was too late, and should have read it just when Mr. Montejo told me to.
Yesterday night, I picked the book again. Sadly, more out of the respect I had been brewing for the last years than out of real interest, but I picked it anyway. And then IT happened.
At some point of Holden's account,everything just clicks. Where he was, why he was there, what was going on with him. So I had to read other's thoughts about this amazing character.
I wasn't really surprised at the bunch of negative reviews, and neither I was at the bunch which considered it a masterpiece. What really surprised me is that many of them, good or bad, seemed to miss something that to me was crucial to the story: that Holden is not the teenager boy going through the difficult task of coming of age and doing stupid things and leaving the innocence of childhood behind, as I had previously suspected and feared. But that his problem, his real problem, is deeper and more dangerous than that. That he is tired of everything and everyone, in serious need of help, immersed in a serious depression, inestable and anguished to a dangerous extreme.
When he first mentions his brother Allie's death of leukemia when he was 13, or how he broke all the widow glasses of their garage afterwards,he does it in an almost eerily casual manner. But later you realise that perhaps that day was the day Holden Caulfield started his race toward the very same precipice he wants to save those children of his dreams from. Unfortunately, as he says, there's no one big around to catch him.
It's not that this book leads to violent acts or has the power of perturbing minds. More like perturbed minds recognise what's really going on with Holden. That he's not only coming-of-age, but he's coming of age immersed in a depression no one seems to see or care about. When his sister confronts him, he ends up crying and clinging on to her like she's the only thing that can save him. Perhaps she is, and she literally saved him without knowing it.
Perhaps I'm in the minority, but as caustic and sad Holden's thoughts are, I don't feel his story is pessimist, but rather the tale of a catharsis that was both necessary AND urgent for him. He is conscious of many things about the world, but also about himself, contrary to many opinions I've read. And he has a good heart, and not an agressive nature. It can end well.
I wholeheartedly recommend this book, but with some warnings. If you need things happening all the time to feel there's something going on, this is not your book. If you expect a coming-of-age narrative, you won't like it either. If you are looking for different tones in the voice, you'll be dissapointed and find it lineal. And if you are an adolescent, I can't tell. You might or might not like it; you might or might not feel it.
As for me, I'm truly thankful for not having read this book when I was Holden's age. I wouldn't have liked it, and so I would have missed this amazing feeling I'm having today. The feeling of having been touched by something. It doesn't happens often, nowadays.
My apologies for the rant! :D
- BeLa
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23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
Five Stars Because I can, 25 Jan 2009
For anyone interested in the 1950s New York that no longer exists, along with the youth of that era, the angst, the coming-of-age story, and the totaly uniqueness of a novel that has captivated an audience for decades, might I recommend this small but powerful and still somewhat new novel. New in the respect that it touches on the fragility of youth, the uncertainity of the world, and how lost a young man can feel, especially in a large city such as New York. This is not a complicated book, but underlying the "facility" is a deeper meaning to life; a searching for something, and ultimately this is what Salinger put into print and the reason it has stood the test of time. Few now are not familiar with Holden Caulfield and his journey through the land of teenage angst, but most will want to re-read this book at a later point in life. It is easy to label Holden now--manic depressive, bi-polar, depressed, or just messed-up teenager, but who at that age does not already have baggage? What I think most will find interesting is that, when reading this book as a teenager, you will obviously see things through Holden's eyes. Reading the book as an adult you will seen both sides of the story and this makes for an even more powerful read. Read it on any level you want, but just read it. Along with "Catch 22," "Me Talk Pretty One Day," and "Barring Some Unforeseen Accident," this is a keeper that you'll want to revisit over and over. A knock-out American classic for all ages.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
Holden Caulfield - the perfect encapsulation of growing up., 7 Dec 2005
By A Customer
I am a 16 year old female. I feel like this book was written by me - that Holden is a male version of myself. Although my slang isn't quite as sharp on the ear, and I don't use the word 'phony' and 'yellow' too much, Holden goes through just about everything I've went through. Loneliness, confusion, hypocrisy, uncertainty, isolation and introspection. Yet this book is a necessity for everybody; it'll help you understand the teenage mind. I especially think all parents should read this; I gave my father a copy of the Catcher in the Rye for Christmas after we had a huge fall out. I told him that I'd hoped he could see me as a Holden character and that it would help him know what I'm going through. Needless to say, he was thrilled to know the underlying reason for my bitterness and harshness.
Anyhow, enough about me; the book is brilliant. It's easy to read, it keeps you turning the page and it is about nothing and everything at the same time.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Love it or hate it, you should still read it, 22 Jan 2008
This is, without doubt, easily my favourite book of all-time, and yet I cannot generally fathom why. It's just my perfect book, in every concievable way, from style to form and characterisation, and absolutely nothing anyone could say against it would ever make me think otherwise.
I can't say exactly in plain and reasonably simple words what makes this novel so fantastic, for I feel that it is really a personal experience for each reader, to make an emotional connection with it. All I can say is that I feel that I connected with Holden, and that is it. I firmly believe that those who dislike (or hate) this novel are simply missing the entire point of it. You have to have experienced emotions similar to what Holden is going through to get a full grasp of this novel, and for those who find Holden moronic and egotistical, this is impossible to do as they cannot empathize through him.
This is the only book that has often made me laugh and cry, often both at the same time. It has no other political or social meaning, and is viable for every generation. I hope they never make a film of it, because, as J.D. Salinger put it: "it wouldn't be what Holden wanted".
Overall then, it seems that "The Catcher in the Rye" is truely a book of literary Marmite: you either love it or hate it. But whatever your view, you should still read it, simply because of the widely varied opinions of the novel.
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24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
"Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases...", 24 Jul 2007
This is a book that will disappoint you if you read it for its fame and controversy. You will be disappointed because you will find that there is only a loose plot (in fact the whole story takes place in about two days), and very little actually happens within it. Catcher in the Rye is not so much a story as a character portrayal - a snapshot in the life of Holden Caulfield as he gets expelled from school.
However, if you appreciate the book for what it is, then you'll find it is very likable. Contrary to some of the other reviewers I do not think that it is depressing or full of rage, or even cynical. It just describes a frame of mind that we've all had a couple of days in our lives. Holden is critical but no better than the people he criticises; angry but unwilling to do harm; seemingly hateful but appreciative of the people he dislikes.
Mostly he is just a child coming to terms with being an adolescent - and it is hard not to sympathise with him and his story.
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19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
Brilliant, 4 Mar 2007
This is a fantastic book. Some people seem to criticise it for such banal reasons as 'nothing much happens' and 'holden doesn't learn anything at the end of the book'. But this is to miss the point entirely. This is a book about the disillusionment of the teen generation in the post-war era. It is about struggling to find an identity when you are at the liminal stage that is your teens, not a child, but certainly not an adult.
This book is a meditation upon the virtues of childhood, and of adulthood, but the immense drawbacks that come with both. You lack knowledge and experience as a child, but you seem to lose idealism and innocence as an adult. This is about the struggle to reconcile the two stages. Holden is stuck between - he simultaneously holds up his little sister as a beacon of perfection, and talks of wanting to live on his own away from adults, and of wanting to be 'the catcher in the rye', and stop children from growing up, whilst simultaneously chatting up girls, almost hiring a hooker, and trying to convince everyone that he is in fact 'grown up and mature' - something he claims to despise.
This isn't a book about events, although the events of the book are certainly interesting; it is a book about a phase in one's life, about looking at adults through a child's eyes, and childhood with rose-tinted spectacles. It is a classic because one can entirely sympathise with Holden's sense of despair, whilst simultaneously recognising that he is desperately immature, somewhat hypocritcal, and leaving behind the childhood he wishes he could preserve.
The image of time is prevalent in the book - the stasis of the museum, the perfect memory of his brother Ally, and so forth - all are images that show Holden's longing for time to stand still in a world he feels is going too fast for him.
Altogether, this book is amazing. It captures the despair and confusion of adolescence in a clear, concise, entertaining and also depressing way. Anyone who isn't moved by the scene at the merry-go-round is dead inside. This is no Dan Brown book, so don't be expecting a lightning fast plot driven by events - this is a superbly crafted analysis of the teenager. Five stars.
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38 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
It's about nothing much - just what it means to human., 15 Mar 2005
There's a tendency for reviews of The Catcher In The Rye to speak of it as a teenagers' book, a story 'about' the problems of being a misunderstood school kid in a cold adult world. But Salinger's novel didn't become a classic by catering for the teen market. Its universal appeal stems from its universal theme. At heart we are ALL misunderstood school kids, and it's a cold old world out there. Holden Caulfield is just a human being in very deep trouble. Specifically, he's been sacked from yet another school, he's too distressed & frustrated to stick around to the end of term but too frightened to go home, so he spends the entire book floundering around the city looking for somebody to talk to and generally making an idiot of himself. It's the age-old theme of a troubled soul wandering in the wilderness - never mind that in this case the wilderness is the East Side of Manhattan, and Holden's wanderings include a midnight raid on his own home to talk to his own sister. What is really going on, is that Holden is having a nervous breakdown - not provoked by some post-adolescent navel-gazing; he recently lost his kid brother to leukaemia, and none of the adults in Holden's wealthy, privileged world has bothered to wonder how he will cope with the tragedy. The answer is, he isn't coping. He is on the edge of the abyss, and its odours permeate the bitter humour of the novel. It is wonderfully comic, and hauntingly painful. Holden Caulfield is the best and the worst, the kindest and most exasperating, the most intelligent and the least rational of people. He is the human condition, in other words. That is what immortalized the author. The publication of this book changed literature for ever. For any of us to say we don't like it, makes no more sense than saying we don't think much of 'Hamlet'. It will simply go on for ever without us and never notice.
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63 of 79 people found the following review helpful:
Catcher in the Rye - a Review, 11 Feb 2003
This book is infamous for a number of reasons. Mark Chapman was reading this book when he shot and killed John Lennon in 1980. The author JD Salinger has refused to publish little else apart from a few short stories and he now has a cult mystique about him. He refuses all interviews and there are tantalising stories of hundreds of unpublished manuscripts that he refuses to allow the world to ever see. Catcher in the Rye (Salinger's only published novel) has virtually no plot to speak of and it's only major character Holden Caulfield is seen as an unlikeable snob by many readers. The book can look like a semi-literate mess of swearing, cursing and gross overuse of some words ("phoney", "goddamn" and "corny" for some). The novel often has an (unjustified) negative image as a book only loved by weirdos and social outcasts.What people often overlook is the quality of the book itself. Catcher in the Rye is the story of American teenager Holden Caulfield, who is expelled from school and goes to stay in New York on his own for a few days. He feels alienated from the world he sees as immoral and corrupt. Catcher in the Rye is written in very colloquial slang and is sometimes hard to read. This lends itself perfectly to showing the confusion and sadness that Holden feels inside, together with his thoughts and feelings. No other book in the world gives such a realistic feeling of alienation as this book does. It is real and lifelike, and is how many people (especially teenagers) actually feel. The real world is often unfair and usually dull. This book is realistic and honest. This is why the book is still popular among hundreds of young people, even many years after it's publication. Holden is a confusing young man and he frequently behaves appallingly. He is a hypocrite, he is arrogant and he is often extremely rude. He has nothing but contempt for the majority of people he sees and meets. We are often shocked by his actions, but still feel such sympathy for his problems and his character. This book can be frustrating to read - there are many details about our (anti?) hero's life which are hinted at but we never actually find out much for definate. We only get a colourful description of a very short time period in Holden's life, and then he rudely tells us that he doesn't feel like telling us anything else at the end. And then that's it, it's over. When I finish it I want to read it again, to see if I missed anything. On re-readings I usually notice something new and gradually the picture opens up. This is a good measure of a great book. I had to read this book several times to "get" it. The book still frustrates and upsets me, and I first read it many years ago and I have read it many times. I believe that everyone should read this book at some point. Even if they hate it (which many people certainly will) it cannot fail to have some kind of emotional effect on them (even if you are appalled). If you are interested in the book read it again and then you will probably begin to love it as I do. This book is wonderful, and it can make you laugh and then cry all on the same page. A masterwork.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Truly Brilliant, 19 Jun 2005
I read this book for my A-Level coursework this year, before I read it, I had it down as some boring piece of literature from the same peroid as Jane Austen. It is in fact much more modern than that, and much more interesting than I had anticipated. Because of my initial reactions to the book, I didn't start reading it expecting to enjoy it, but soon found that I couldn't put it down, spending practically two evenings solid reading the entire book.
The story revolves around Holden Caulfield, a 16 year old boy who rebels against anything he can for no particular reason, and a brief period in his life before christmas, after he runs away from the school he's getting kicked out of, when he spends a weekend alone in New York, drinking, getting into fights, trying to get a prostitute and sleeping out on the streets when he has to. The book is presented as a straight forward first person narrative of what happened from Holden, and his views on how just about everything and everyone is 'Phony.' I would say it's best described as literature's equivalent to reallity TV, but infinitely more intersting, as whilst there doesn't really appear to be any great underlying plot to it, you will be able to relate to the characters experiences, also the writing may seem unplanned and random, but that adds to the book in a way, as you can feel like Holden really is describing what happened to him, as if he is actually sat telling you the story.
In summary, a strangely compelling read, brilliantly narrated and probably my favourite book of all time. Buy it and read it now.
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33 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
I hope this book catches your eye ..., 23 Dec 2004
"The catcher in the rye" is the story of some days in Holden Caulfied's life, as he tells it in the hospital where he was taken after his "meltdown". In his own words, "I'll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy". The plot is quite simple, mainly what happens when a particularly sensitive teenager gets kicked out of school, and decides to travel alone a little bit instead of just telling his parents what happened. However, even if the main premise is common enough, the way it is delivered is what makes this book so special that it has become a classic. Salinger makes us get to know Holden, giving the reader interesting insights into his musings, likes and dislikes (yeah, generally mostly dislikes). You want some examples?. For instance, and regarding teachers, he says that "You can't stop a teacher when they want to do something. They just do it". Or when he starts to think about the things we say over and over again, without giving them any actual meaning: "I'm always saying `Glad to `ve met you` to somebody I'm not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though". Holden's views are interesting, and different readers will interpret them in diverse ways, specially if their age isn't the same. To teenagers, Holden reflects the highs and lows they have to deal with, and their struggle with the "phony world" of adults that sometimes seems so weird, so wrong. To adults, Holden is a part of themselves that they somehow lost with the years, the innocence and the shock before things they have grown accustomed to with time. There are quite a few symbols in this book, but you will able to understand it even if you don't know a thing about symbology (or aren't interested in it). Despite that, I'd like to share with you a specially important symbol, the catcher in the rye that gives this book its title. Holden wants to be the catcher in the rye when he grows up: "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around--nobody big, I mean--except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff--I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going. I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be." . He doesn't know why, he just wants to come out from somewhere and catch little children before they fall from the cliff. In a way, that shows how much he wants to preserve their innocence, against a phony world that tries to corrupt them... I really liked this book, and I found it engaging and very easy to read. I'm not from USA, so I didn't have to read it as obligatory reading material for school, but I ended up reading it all the same mainly out of curiosity because many of my American friends recommended it to me. After reading "The catcher in the rye", I must say that they were right, and I would like to recommend this book to you, if you haven't read it yet. And if you are forced to read it for school, please JUST GIVE IT AN OPPORTUNITY. I know it is hateful having to read something merely because someone says so, but in this case that will work to your advantage... What can I say?. This book, unlike so many others, is really WORTH YOUR TIME. Belen Alcat
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