The Catcher in the Rye Book

5.0 stars. I LOVE IT when I go into a book with low expectations and it ends up knocking me on my ass. Admittedly, this is tougher to do with "classics" but it certainly happened in this case. I remember first reading this in school (like many of us) and not thinking it was anything special. However, having first read it almost 25 years ago, I knew I had to read it again before I could feel justified in actually reviewing it. Of course, I didn't hold out much hope that my feelings would change and was expecting a fairly painful reading experiece.

In fact, as I started reading, I was already thinking about what my amazingly insightful, completely "isn't it cool to bash on the classics" 1 star review was going to focus on. I thought maybe I could bag on the less than spectacular prose used by Salinger (making myself feel really smart in the process). Or maybe I could take some jabs at the less than exciting narrative pacing (and throw in a few references to "watching paint dry").

In the end, I thought my most likely avenue for attacking reviewing this anthem of teen angst was that it was utterly yawn inspiringno longer relevant today because of the GLUT of teen angst that the recent generations have been exposed to ad nauseam growing up. I mean we live in a time in which teen angst is EVERYWHERE and even has its own sub-genre label now. You can find it in:

MUSIC.........

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MOVIES........

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AND EVEN THE SHITTY POPULAR LITERATURE*** OF OUR TIMES...

*** Literature is a serious stretch, but I must admit that these books do IN FACT fill me with ANGST!!!
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So what happened to all of the preconceived notions I had before I starting reading this book?


Instead, I found myself completely drawn into the rich, nuanced story of Holden Caulfield. I found myself empathizing with Caulfield almost from the beginning (something I did not expect to do). His "annoying", "pseudo rebellious" and "just don't care" exterior were so obviously manufactured and so patently hiding a seriously sad and lost boy that I was transfixed on finding the real Holden Caulfield.

Despite the book being written "in Holden's own words" the reader was still able to discern that Holden's surface response to a situation was hiding a much deeper, emotional resposne. For Salinger to be able to infuse that kind of nuance into the sparse prose of Caulfield's narrative was nothing short of brilliant in my opinion.

Caulfied is lazy. He is stubborn. He is immature. He is unfocused. He is untruthful. He is dangerously short-sighted and he is lost in his own world or unrealistic expectations. Sounds like that could certainly be a not unsubstantial portion of the male 16 year old population.

However, after reading this book, I learned a few other things about Holden that I though were fascinating and that are not as often discussed:

1. He is desperately lonely (he even goes so far as ask his cab drivers to join him for a drink);
2. He is generous with his time and his things (he writes an essay for his roommate despite being upset with him and even lets him borrow his jacket);
3. He is extremely sensitive and longs for an emotional (rather than just a physical) commitment (he mentions several times his need to "be in love" in order to be physical and his experience with the prostitute certainly bears this out);
4. He is intelligent (despite being lazy and unfocused, Holden displays great insight and intelligence regarding books he has read and displays at the museum); and
5. Despite being unable to process it correctly, he is full of compassion and has a deep capacity for love, which he shows most notably for his sister (this was one of the most powerful parts of the story for me as it was Holden's desire to avoid hurting Phoebe that keeps him from running away at the end of the book).

Taking all of the good and the bad together, I was left with the feeling that Holden is an adolescent on the cusp of adulthood who is achingly afraid of the loss of his childhood and the responsibility and commitment that he sees as required to make it in the "adult" world. He is compassionate, intelligent and deeply emotional and yet is unable (or unwilling) to focus that energy on those steps that he sees as leading him away from his "happy memories of childhood" and closer to the "scary world of the adult."

I think this is superbly shown in Holden's expressed dream of wanting to being the "Catcher in the Rye." Quick side note: I had no idea what the title to the book referred to until I just read the book. Here is a person so afraid of growing up and so averse to giving into the pain and sadness that he sees as the result of becoming an adult that he wants nothing more than to spend his life protecting others from losing the innocence of childhood. Big, crazy, "I want to save the world" dreams are a wonderful part of childhood and it is a shame that such ideas and beliefs are too often destroyed under the barrage of "you really need to grow up" rather than having such dreams transitioned and re-focused into daring the improbable within the world of the possible.

A great and moving reading experience and one that I give my HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!