Rating: 
Summary: Could be one of the most overrated books ever
Review: This book was a sensation when I first read it in 1956 as a teenaged prep school boy. I loved it then. What the hell, it was about me. That's how we all felt in 1956, we preppy, suicidal virgins. Today I can't understand what all the noise was about. Salinger was known for his alienated presence. Today this is a common trope in literature and films. The prototype of all teen angst books, it seems incredible to me that anyone can read it today without laughing out loud. This includes modern teens who have to see this museum piece as stilted and embarrassing. Salinger gets 3 stars for being early, but like a pop record that everyone just loved 45 years ago and today seems tinny and phony, it just doesn't hold up. All in all this book is best left a memory.EKW
Rating:
Summary: A classic? Maybe. A good story? Not really.
Review: Maybe this novel is supposed to speak to the rebellious teen who can't find their path in this world. As a middle aged adult who read this book for this first time, I was disappointed in this "classic." A dumb kid with too high of an opinion of himself who thinks everyone else are jerks gets thrown out of prep school. He wanders around in New York City a few days getting into various mischief until the money his mommy and daddy sent him runs out. Then he goes home. The book should have ended with his father giving him a swift kick in the rear and throwing him out on the street to appreciate what real life is like and to take advantage of his opportunities.
Rating: 
Summary: Entrancing
Review: J.D. Salinger has given the world, quite possibly, it's best novel; "The Catcher in the Rye". A glimpse into the mind of an enstranged teenager, made cynical by his circumstances, could easily become an unweildy mess of literature - but Salinger made the character of Holden Caulfield so believeable and truthful that it is impossible to discredit his views. "The Catcher in the Rye" follows absolutely none of the standard literary rules relating to plot or character development, but the novel can still hold it's own, and makes readers FEEL with Holden, and make them question if they themsleves are one of the 'phonies' that Holden fears so much.
Rating:
Summary: My own life written in these pages
Review: After finishing the last page of "The Catcher in the Rye", I suddenly got a strange feeling like someone was reading my mind. I got this unexpected urge to check my room for video cameras, like everything that I had done or thought or said in my life had been recorded by some voyeur. This was the effect that "Catcher" had on me. Holden Caulfield, without a doubt the most fascinating literary character ever written, seems to be the essence of every teenager on the face of the Earth, myself included. Many of the thoughts expressed by Holden have, at some time in my life, been echoed in my own mind. It was truly all I could do not to scream out "I totally agree with you!" during a few points in the book. This is what makes "The Catcher in the Rye" the greatest novel ever written, the fact that it is such a brilliant reflection of at least some of the hopes, fears, and desires of every single teenager out there.
Rating: 
Summary: Questionable Literature
Review: After reading The Catcher in the Rye, I was quite amused after seeing all the reviews that other people had written. To me, it did not seem to be a work of literature that expressed Holden's anguish and him having a breakdown. Please, don't get me wrong, it was a compelling piece of work, but it didn't seem that strong in the sense that everyone had talked about before. In my eyes, I have many questions about this work, where does it come into context that he is having a breakdown? It merely shows his life over a couple of days after he gets kicked out of school and him living in New York, and him telling us about his past. Then again, maybe I should read over the book again and try to see what others are reading in between the lines.
Rating:
Summary: American Masterpiece
Review: I read this book while sick in a Paris hotel during high school. I was pretty bummed out that I couldn't see the sights, but this book is so powerful that I forgot that I was in Paris on vacation, read the book in one sitting, and remember it as one of the highlights of that vacation. Salinger pulled off the very difficult task of writing good colloquial dialogue. The words of Holden are very natural and extremely engrossing. This is the kind of book that stands out as being extremely unique among the American greats. It's in its own league. I highly recommend this book to people of all ages and backgrounds.
Rating:
Summary: Holden, you're my hero
Review: This is, hands down, the best book I've ever read, and I'm a bookworm. I've heard people say it's dated, the writing's terrible, well listen. It's dated to us because he's writing from the point of view of an adolescent boy in the 1950's, so of course nowadays we don't understand some of their slang. The writing is as if he was talking to you, and it's such a personal story. It's so touching, and speaks to you in such a way that after it's over, you wish it could go on forever and just not end. If you haven't read it all ready, go! Buy it! You certainly won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent novel
Review: This is a great book; I couldn't put it down. I wasn't required to read it, but heard it was very good and I agree. Holden's writing is so realistic, even more than fifty years later.
Rating: 
Summary: The most overrated book of the 2nd half of the 20th Century
Review: This book was a sensation when I first read it in 1956 as a teenaged prep school boy. I loved it then. Today I can't understand what all the noise was about. Salinger was known for his alienated presence. Today this is a common trope in literature and films. The prototype of all teen angst books, it seems incredible to me that anyone can read it anymore without laughing out loud. He gets points for being early (though he was predated by decades by Stephen Dedalus, the anti-hero of James Joyce's Ulysses). All in all this book is best left a fond (read:foolish) memory. Lest some find this an ungenerous appraisal, let me refer them to my review of "Mrs. Dalloway," a truly timeless book whose protagonist has far less in common with us today yet whose prose remains brilliant and untarnished by time. EKW
Rating: 
Summary: Garbage
Review: This isn't going to be an incredibly usefull review because I dislike this book so much. Its a worthless book that needs to be dropped from the list of classic books and forgotten. Don't waste your time.
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