The Catcher in the Rye

Rating:
Summary: Great goddam book!
Review: I like it. I like it alot!

Rating:
Summary: ~*~The best book I have ever read!!!~*~
Review: The Catcher in the Rye was by far the best book I have ever read!!! It is an excellent story for a teenager to read for a school project! Teenagers love this hilarious book! It makes you feel like it was made for you to enjoy personally, like J. D. Salinger made this book for your sense of humor or he knew that you would love to read this book! Holden Caulfield is truly a "madman". The only thing I didn't like about the book was that it ended too soon! I wish the author would come out with a sequel to the story!

Rating:
Summary: A Life-changing Novel
Review: As a tenth grader, this novel was assigned reading for me but i actually read it before we began. I started reading it in math and finished it in about 4 periods, or eight hours. I felt I could really identify with Holden, I mean who can't (except all you phonies?). His brutal honesty is identifiable as well as humrous. Salinger uses a combination of teen-age slang and comical albeit negative view on life to create an affected dumbness of Holden which proves sometimes it's smart to be stupid. To those who say it is not a great piece of litereature or how amazing the diction is well it's not. But it makes for an amazing read which I couldnt say for Hemmingway or Dickens. Much like the guitar sometimes the simple is better and more effective than the long drawn out complex progressive. Intelligence can only be so advanced before it becomes stupid. The Catcher in the Rye never lost interest as did a Tale of Two Cities with it's drawn out pages of contradictions. I mean what's better some Pink Floyd long-guitar solo or the quick lyrical solo of Nirvana's Heart Shaped Box? Sometimes the simpler the diction, the more effective. I think anyone from ages ten to one hundred will enjoy this, but if you dont want your kids getting off that carousel of innocence then dont let them read it. And dont ever tell anyone anything you read because then you will start to miss the book. Enjoy...

Rating:
Summary: I gave it 5 stars because 6 wasn't an option!
Review: I read this book a few months before my sixteenth birthday - and I've never found a character I liked more than Holden Caulfield. The monologue is heartfelt, realistic, and funny. The things he goes through in this novel are timelessly relevant to a teenager's thoughts and feelings, yet the writing is so good, the character development so thorough, that it can appeal to any reader. I can't put into words my love for this novel, because it struck a chord deep within me; I read it at just the right time in my life (and I've read it many times since). I definitely recommend this.. it's a must-read for ANYONE. A million stars.

Rating:
Summary: Timeless
Review: Hard to believe that this book was written 56 years ago! Also hard to believe that high school kids read it, it's so edgy and scary in a way. I see this book today very differently from the simplistic individual v. society view I held in high school over 30 years ago. Today for me it's an eerie portrait of a young person for whom the sub-text of daily life, the constant stream of petty frustrations that we all experience, has taken over and become reality. Caulfield is hanging on by a thread which frays by the minute as he wanders through NYC. His sensitivity to others, good (the nuns and Phoebe) and bad (Ackley), overwhelms him! The writing is superb, right down to the grammatical errors that so perfectly capture a teenager trying to sound like an adult--"I and Brossard and Ackley got on the bus..." A tip for book clubs: save the light fiction for the beach or airplane, and read classics, even if you've read them before--makes for great meetings!

Rating:
Summary: Everybody's a critic
Review: I've read some of the reviews and it's mostly from 2 opposite extremes of love or hate. No wonder Salinger feel compeled to retreat from society, the venom sometimes is too bitter a pill. I always thought Catcher in the Rye is about family or specifically relationship between siblings. The ending where the sister is pleading Holden to stay is one of the most poignant moment that I've ever read. It's not the world that he's angry about, it's the disconnection from his family and it took a display of love from his sister to finally pull him back. I've always felt a quiet introspection everytime I read the book and a greater appreciation for my family and especially my sisters. I think what Mr. Salinger is trying to say is that nothing is more important than family, nothing.

Rating:
Summary: A surprisingly humourous story of cynicism!
Review: We are first introduced to Holden Caulfield, the narrator of this story, when he is seventeen. From his voice, we are lead into three days of his life when he was sixteen, just expelled from prep school and alone in New York. Now, that isn't the most exciting plot in the world, and I know many have said that the plot is downright mundane. It isn't the plot, however, that makes this book such a literary classic. Through the eyes and words of Holden Caulfield, we are handed that rare glimpse of the heart of every rebellious teenager in the world. There is not a page that goes by without Holden complaining about a phony teacher or a phony act, and by the fifth chapter, you start to realize that it isn't the world that is phony but rather the boy himself who sees it that way.
A look at the rebel in all of us is hidden deep inside the heart of Holden Caufield's narration, and within the 'goddamns' and the'phonies', we begin to realize the alienation that he feels is what each of us felt as we grew up in a world that moves a little too fast around us. There is also an underlying humour in Holden's depictions of various scenes and conversations, as if he sees everything as a joke on himself. An altogether thoroughly enjoyable book, something every teenager must read as we face the rushiing waters of life.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: This is a really great book, but the ending wasn't so great.

Rating:
Summary: Everybody Loves Holden
Review: Salinger is a genius. When I first heard of this novel and decided to read it for a class assignment, I was not thrilled. For one, the title sounds terrible, and, two, anything labeled as an American Literature classic usually means BORING. Well, I was terribly mistaken. This book truly is an American classic. From the first page to the last, you will be completely mesmermized by our hero, Holden. This book was written from the heart and the best way to describe it is that it is real. It is written in real language, with real feeling, emotion. It is about real life from the eyes of a teen. I would recommend this book to people of all ages who are looking for a good laugh, or just want to read a darn good book. Once you open the pages, Holden will become a part of you, and I guarantee you will enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: Colorful Characters, Uneventful Plot......
Review: Sallinger's Holden Caufield was one of the most colorful lead characters/first-person narrarators that I have ever read. His character, in addition to some snappy dialouge led to this book being a quick and easy read. That's where my praise ends and for that the book is worthy of a 3-star rating. My disappointment comes from the novels uneventful plot: spoiled teenager gets kicked out of his 4th swanky private school and spends 3 days on his own in New York City. (...) This book has become required reading for some of our society's most menacing outcasts (for example the assassins who shot Reagan and killed John Lennon). The were both supposedly influenced by this book. It must have had a very subtle message that I missed. Many reviews have discussed this book in tandem with Lord of the Flies. If you only have time to read one or the other, please choose William Golding's classic. Catcher in the Rye was "mildly" entertaining and for that it will be a pleasant surprise if you have to read it for a class. It does move at a very rapid pace and Holden Caufield is enjoyable. Just imagine how good this could have been with an "actual plot". It makes you wonder, doesn't it?