The Catcher in the Rye

Rating:
Summary: Humorous At Time.
Review: Having never read this book when I was supposed to in highschool, I realize I never missed anything. Salinger is quite humorous at times but the story overall is agonizingly boring. Maybe if I was a teenager again it would have made a bigger impression. Is it worth reading, the jurys' still out.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth the time
Review: I had to read this for school and I don't see why this is still such a beloved book. I can understand why it might have been popular when it first came out in an era where people strived for a "wholesome" atmosphere but now this book is just 200+ pages of garbage! There are several things wrong with this book.

First of all, there is the repeated swearing. I'm not usually bothered by this. Stephen King uses quite a bit of cursing, for example, but his stories are still interesting. This book, however, swears so much that the book would probably be twice as short if you took them all out. Every other word seems to be "g-dd--n or a variation of it.

There is also the repitition of the phrases "____kill(s) me" and "phony". Now, this wouldn't seem so bad at first. But believe me, you have NO IDEA how incredibly annoying that gets after a while. I actually started to cringe whenever those phrases were coming up, and I'm not exaggerating. Take out those two phrases plus the swearing, and this book is reduced to about 1/4 of it's actual size - maybe less.

Next there is the movement of story. The Catcher in the Rye does not go anywhere! There are a few mildly interesting, new occurences here and there but the majority of the story is about the main character,Holden, getting kicked out of his 4th school and going away to New York before having to face his parents with another rejection. During his stay in New York and once he goes home, he does basically the same, average things every day and this book - from beginning to end - is just one huge pessimistic opinion about everyday life. The story ends much the same way it began with no elevation or climactic events anywhere in between. In other words, boring. I had to force myself to finish it.

Finally, there is the never-ending and annoying whines of Holden himself. Halfway through this book I was pissed off and annoyed with Holden. All he does is whine and complain about every little thing around him. Not only is it incessive whining, it's rambling. He cannot simply state his dislike and reason for that dislike for something. He goes on and on about what he dislikes, why, the events that trigger it, what it reminds him of, and a million other things not even related to his topic. That is all this book really is - a load of complaints at absolutely everything including the harmless, meaningless things/people around him. This book does not so much give me an insight to a troubled teen's life so much as it makes me want to scream at him.

There was one thing I did really like about this book. Salinger writes very well in first-person dialect. I felt as if Holden was actually talking to me in a casual conversation. It also allows the reader to figure out for themselves, why Holden acts the way he does through what he tells you and his actions. However, this conversational attitude towards it is vastly overshadowed by the swearing, lack of movement, and overall annoying-ness of Holden. Even if it is conversational, it doesn't matter much because the person having the "conversation" with you is someone you wouldn't WANT to talk to in the first place! The purpose of this book would've been much better if it had just been a short characterization story or maybe a psychological analysis, rather than trying to pass it off as a novel that will thoroughly hold interest. The Cather in the Rye created a disillusionment of society for people in the 1950's, thus the wide-spread interest. That disillusioned fascination has died down since then, and this book should too.