The Catcher in the Rye

Rating:
Summary: CR not a subversive book
Review: I just finished the book for about the fifth time. Most reading this will know the story of Holden Cauldfield and his little oddysey during the Christmas season of 1949. I first had this book assigned to me by a young lit teacher when I was about Holden's age. It was my first really serious, critical book report. What I liked about it at the time was its brevity but I did get a good grade on the report which was held up to the class as the standard for such an endeavor. It was only during my second reading about ten years later that it occured to me why that teacher had chosen me to report on Catcher in the Rye. I feel that many read far too much into the story and how it is told. When it came out in 1951 it was not just controversial, it was considered downright subversive and banned in many places. Today one can only assume that the four times the F-word is used in the original version was the impetus for such a reaction. Actually, it is just the story of an intelligent and insightful but troubled teenage boy for whom the pressures of looming adulthood and the recent death of a sibling are too much to bare, leading to a breakdown and the catharsis of this telling. Sure he is critical of others and of life but he never spares himself in his criticism. Yes, we can assume that he has in him some of the phoniness that he so vehemently decries. "Let he who is . . . ." However, through Holden Cauldfield we can see through so much of the unreality of everday human experience and interaction. He is not a hero or a fool or a phoney. He is just a guy that needed a little time out and felt also a need to share with us in an incredibly humorous and entertaining way what he was going through at the time. It always makes me smile, it really does. I'm awfully succeptible to that type of thing, I can tell you that right now.

Rating:
Summary: prep school drop out
Review: This book was a very good book to read as a teenager. Holden is going through alot of stuff that some teens have to go through. He was being kicked out of almost every school that he went to and was just sent along to anouther one. He left his last school after being notified that he was being kicked out and started roming the streets. Now Holden did have money that he had saved up so he went to hotels and bars and aventually turned to getting girls weather they were ones he met at clubs, bars or even a prostitute once. He didnt want his family to know that he had gotten kicked out yet again, like any normal teenager, so he decided to only go home to see his sister late at night. He loved his sister, basically because he could talk to her, even if she was really upset that he got kicked out. This book shows holdens life and all of his struggles, many teens are either kicked out of school or they drop out not really knowing how the real world is. Holden went through many money issues and even being manipulated by people of the outside world that he didnt even know. He lived by the day at either hotels or at old teachers houses. Something I really like about the book is the ending the last chapter when he says " I could probably tell you what I did after I went home, and how I got sick and all and what school I'm supposed to go to next fall, after I get out of here but I dont feel like it". He dosent really tell you what is going to happen in his future maybe because he dosent know. you can tell by the end of the book that he is tired of people asking him questions about applying himself and wanting to go to school and all of that but he dosent know nor it seems like he dosent care what really happens, and teens act the same way, that is why I think that this book is a fantastic book to read if you are a teen.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Reading Experience You'll Ever Have!
Review: J.D. Salinger's A CATCHER IN THE RYE is a remarkable yet painful tale of the angst of a disillusioned young man named Holden Caulfield. Salinger's use of imagery and few words adds to the confusion and passionate yearning of Holden. In the end Holden has earned our compassion, yet the reader has no problem identifying with him. The reader unwillingly leaves A CATCHER IN THE RYE breathless and forever changed, having been inside Holden's head far too long, yet not long enough. Along with CATCHER, may I also suggest --> THE LOSERS' CLUB by Richard Perez, [e-mail] by Tom Grimes. I agree with the former reviewer who mentioned these titles. Two odd ball loner books purchased through Amazon that made me smile this gloomy holiday season.

Rating:
Summary: A cult !
Review: In 1949, while "recovering" in a California sanitorium, 17-year-old Holden relates events that occurred during three December days in 1948 -when he was sixteen. He had just been expelled from boarding school and decided to 'take a vacation' in New York before returning to his parents' inevitable wrath. Told as a monologue, the book describes Holden's thoughts and activities over these few days, during which he describes a developing nervous breakdown, depression, and odd, erratic behaviour, prior to his eventual nervous collapse.

Holden begins by saying that his account will not give any moral message. He will not tell about his "lousy" childhood and "all that David Copperfield kind of crap" because such details bore him. This is the kind of 'in the face' honesty that most readers of this book have identified with.

The book is a perceptive study of one individual's understanding of his human condition. The book, which came out in 1951, still has a universal appeal to it. It describes the angst, alienation that a 'cynical adolescent' faces. This turns him into a rebel who hates people, judges people and often runs away.

The book was banned in America after its publication, which added to its mystique and appeal. The book was considered 'obscene', 'filthy and profane', 'immoral' and has often upset people due to its rebellious views. John Lennon's assassin Mark Chapman asked Lennon to sign a copy of the book earlier in the morning of the day that he murdered Lennon. This gave the book even more notoriety.

Rating:
Summary: A Beacon of Hope for the Disenchanted
Review: It's a story about a young man who feels out of place in the world. I believe it is the book Salinger wished he could have read when he was Holden's age.

It's a story of an angry young man, so young he doesn't know how angry he is. He burns bridge after bridge in his search for meaning. It's the bender I always meant to go on, but now don't need to. Salinger imparts to the reader the wisdom Holden miraculously finds. If you seek this wisdom, this book is for you. If you ever had a doubt about the world and its limitless hypocrisy, this book is for you. Otherwise try "Jurrasic Park."

Rating:
Summary: the top of literature
Review: To see anyone relate their experience reading this book as one that evoked jealousy of an illiterate is truly sad. This is, in my opinion the best book that has ever, and ever will be written. Anyone who cannot see the bittersweet irony and melancholy Salinger shares with the reader in this masterpiece of literature exposes their incapacity for depth of thought and feeling.

Rating:
Summary: NOT a classic
Review: I have been hearing about this book ever since the mid Eighties. I finally bought it and read it - and although it was not the worst book I have read, it was no classic either.
The hero is a regular teenager, from a well to do white family, who leaves boarding school and goes around more or less aimlessly for a few days. He is of course confused, and full of thoughts, which may have caused a sensation 50 years ago, but is a cliche today. There is nothing truly rebellious about him.
A classic to me is a book that stands the test of time. This book has certainly failed to maintain its initial relevance over the years. Still, it is not too bad as a regular adolescence book.

Rating:
Summary: character driven
Review: This book is not about the plot, it's about the character Holden. Okay, the plot affects his actions and state of mind, but if you're expecting an ending that wraps everything up in a nice neat bow then you may as well read some trashy murder mystery.
I think this books main problem is the hype that surrounds it. Salinger's fame as a recluse (how can you be a famous recluse?) has certainly led to a cult status for 'Catcher in the Rye' that definitely helps book sales, but I think it may hinder enjoyment.

I liked this book a lot. It's not the best book I've ever read, but it is a good book. I can understand people who had a problem with the language use, some of the slang expressions are long since forgotten and have to be deciphered through the context, it is also written how Holden would say it rather than in a more literary way. This just makes him more appealing as a character.

Holden is not the nicest of characters, you're not supposed to love everything he does or says (or at least I didn't). He is a flawed person, he has serious mental issues. He has built up a wall in his mind against these 'phonies' and continues to repeat his hatred for these people when he is secretly one of them. If you can tell what he's going to say next, Great! that just proves what a phony HE really is. That's good character writing.

This book isn't life changing or genius or anything like that, but it is entertaining and that's all a book needs to be.
It's short, I doubt if there is a chapter more than 10 pages long, and I thought it was really easy to read.
If you just want something good, not too challenging but interesting, to read on a rainy day I'd recommend this book.
If your looking for a book with a hero that, in the end, gets the girl, you should probably do a search for Mills and Boon.

Rating:
Summary: classic
Review: This book always puts a smile on my face. I read it several times and it still works. Holden thinks he has a sad life. He keeps putting everything down. He is full of jealousy and that teenage angst we can all relate to. He makes a little trip for himself and the ride is full of ups and downs. Enjoy the ride.

Rating:
Summary: Read another book
Review: It's safe to assume that if you're reading this review, you've contemplated buying this book. Don't. I realize that if you've got a mind to read it you're going to do so. This is for the person who has a mind a to read 'a classic' but isn't sure which one they want to read. I hated this book. I can't possibly stress my disgust in it via this review. But know this. I read it during a three-week exercise in the Arizona dessert during my tour of service in the Marine Corps. Being that I was in the dessert my options were a) continue reading this book or b) play with dirt. Thirteen pages from the end I chose option b. And I am not a dirt enthusiast. To the author's credit I've never loathed a written word or envied the illiterate as much as I did when I read this book. Maybe that's worth something. Just not to me.