Rating: 
Summary: One Helluva Great read
Review: Listen - this book has probably gotten more mixed reviews, more shares of both 1's and 10's, than any other novel out there. It's not the messiah of the literary world, but it's not vulgar trash either, so let's put a stop to those theories right now. It's a book that, for some people people (myself included) struck a chord and parallels real life so completely that you feel for Holden as you would for your closest friend. Having reread this book just after finishing my first year at college, and my first year in the dorm life, it holds new meaning and truths that I skipped over (I think) the first few times I read it. It is a treasure trove of wit and truth for people our age, if you're a little cynical with the world, or maybe just think that books can do a bit more than just depict the world in a picture perfect image with no four-letter words, then this book might just click with you. This isn't everyone's book, though - if the language turned you off (as I know it did so many people) then don't toss off Salinger all together: try Franny & Zooey, almost as great a read, with slightly more refined characters and lifestyles. Either way, you'll get the read of a lifetime
Rating: 
Summary: Filthy
Review: This is a disgusting, filthy book that should, God-willing, NEVER infect another child's mind
Rating: 
Summary: If you like the commentary on our world
Review: I never really liked this book (probably because I was forced to read it when I was young). But reading the reviews here reminds me of my favorite book. If you like social commentary - GO READ STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND. Check the reviews....you will find them equally as passionate
Rating: 
Summary: Catcher in the rye is about adolescence
Review: Catcher in the rye is, on one level, a story about a young, dissatified American youth, but on a higher level, it is an assasination of culture and society, and the people within. He takes people, and figuratively speaking, shoots them. He shoots them down by showing them the side they don't like to see. The book could have started out with "I don't like your kind. And this is why:" It is honestly written, and captures the energy of a young boy bringing coming to terms with his surroundings. Perhaps one of its greatest contributions is its "catching the state" of adolescence, particularly American adolescence, which by nature, is rebellious against all forms of establishment. But most importantly, it works beyond adolescence, as the essence of the work persuades us to critically examine "the phonies" of OUR society
Rating:
Summary: I want to vomit
Review: If you're fascinated by the ruminations of some whiny rich kid who thinks the world owes him a living as he ponders Central Park ducks and goes whore-chasing, then maybe you might like this book. No wonder Salinger has kept hidden from the public so long
Rating:
Summary: Best book you ever read? Read some more
Review: Salinger's cult novel, ridiculously easy to read, is generally liked by those who sympathise or identify with Holden's plight. But how seriously should one take his existential angst, and what are the implications of his outlook?
Holden displays a sort of 'hyperconsciousness' where preoccupations of his intellect negate his attempts to enjoy everyday occurrences. It is difficult ro recall in the book anywhere where Holden feels real humour, joy or love without qualification and introspection. The critic Philip Roth considers the book upholds a sort of elitist ethos, based not on actual status or achievement, but on dreams of the individual as somehow special or chosen ,created, maintained and protected by the haughty, solitary personality.
Whether this type really does possess the truth, and if society (however one chooses to define it) is as guilty and phoney as Holden suggest, the reader must decide. How society would need to be reconstructed, and what difference it would imply is never touched upon; but then this style of criticism is, by and large, wholly negative.
The book, widely praised for it's structural originality, should be seen in the light of a literary tradition, that Salinger was quite aware of. I hope I have not sounded too critical of this work. My target is more the misleading, partial critique, widely reproduced in other reviews on this page. Salinger is famously reticent for commentary on both his craft and his intentions. I feel this book is as much a loving lament, than an endorsement, of this sad, solitary character Holden Caulfield.
For the finest literary examination of many of these issues, read Dostoyevsky's 'Notes From Underground', and 'Crime and Punishment', novels which stand head and shoulders above 'Catcher', but are equally as gripping and easy to read.
Rating:
Summary: one of first books to take adolescents seriously
Review: I first read this book about 5 years ago when I was in my 40s and found it to be very interesting. Just as the movie, "Rebel Without a Cause" was one of the first movies to take adolescents and their viewpoints seriously, so was "Catcher" one of the first books to do so. Regarding the language, it's natural and fits the situation. The 3 (only) times that the "F" word is used (but who's counting), Holden is objecting to its use and trying to protect his sister from the word. People who want and wanted to ban this book either hadn't read it or didn't understand it. Books should be read and not banned, anyway. Most of us have felt out of place and disillusioned at one time or another. Salinger wrote about that type of experience from a young person's point of view instead of following the custom of the time and pretending that everything in life is wonderful. Life is varied, and it's sicker to ignore that fact than to address it
Rating:
Summary: Holden, my friend
Review: I absolutely loved this book. Holden Caulfield captures
the essence of youth and all the troubles that the youth
of any era must go through. A great book for anyone,
from a high school student to someone in their 40's.
This book will have you laughing, sympathizing and nearly in tears as you read about this troubled young man.
Rating:
Summary: the "Catcher" in post-modern America
Review: This book was referred to by a teacher in a school for gifted students as-
"one of the filthiest books I have ever read"
I guess that's one way to see it.
I see it as a wonderfully funny and sad experience of our world, where education is done by people who are not educators to students who have other agendas than education and where families have no parents and no children and where the world has lost those strange creatures formerly known as human beings.
Not to despair, however, because the book is wonderfully alive with humanity, and is also bizarrely edifying and real
Rating:
Summary: Nevermind?
Review: Still the ultimate piece of writing on angst, Jerome DavidSalinger's Catcher In The Rye does not cease to amaze - nearlyfifty years (!) after its publication. It is still the yardstick for any book dealing with the falsehood of Western civilisation, the passage from teen spirit to an adulthood for which there are no ideals or idols left. It surely is no coincidence that it still serves as a device for superlatives, when being used as reference point for novels such as Douglas Coupland's Generation X (in Cosmopolitan), Bret Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero (in The Observer), Alexander Stuart's The War Zone (in London's Time-Out), Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City (in Playboy), Scott Bradfield's History Of Luminous Motion, Trey Ellis' Home Repairs, Iain Banks' Wasp Factory etc etc. Fortunately, Salinger coped better with the fame and fuss than Kurt Cobain. Unfortunately it sickened him into not publishing much at all for decades.
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