The Catcher in the Rye

Rating:
Summary: This isn't literature, this is a teen's diary....
Review: .... but maybe the author intended that. It isn't that well written, the language is simple, and if it weren't for the every-other-words-a-swear-word style I would recommend this to fourth graders ... it is that easy a read. But the content is really for teenagers.

The story all takes place from a teenage boy's point of view. He talks the way a teenage boy would talk, and he writes the way a teenage boy would talk. The more I read it the more it sounded like one big long diary entry.

Not that great a book, the whole thing takes place in something like one night. And it doesn't go anywhere. The guy doesn't learn anything, the guy doesn't regret anything, look at something different, or anything. He stays the same and the character never grows or changes. Through the whole book he keeps the same views. And I know that you can't really change views in one night, but the book doesn't go anywhere.

Another thing that really got on my nevers was the narrator was very repetitive. He said every other sentence twice. He would just put an "I mean" or something before he repeated it. "I really did. I mean it, I really did," for example. He must have done that a hundred times.

And a lot of things were in italics. I know the author is trying to emphasize things, just as someone would talk, but it got excessive. And annoying.

Not really the best literature out there, I wouldn't call it a classic either. It's one big long diary entry. Not very well written and it doesn't go anywhere.

A mediocre 3.75 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Should be called 'Much Ado About Nothing II'
Review: Another good title for the book could be 'The Dopey, Immature Kid with a Lousy Attitude'. I read this book twice, once as an immature teenager and the second time as an immature adult. The reason I read the book again as an adult was to find the so-called 'great meaning and powerful ideas' that are supposedly contained in the novel. I found absolutely nothing of significance and meaning that would qualify this novel as a classic or masterpiece.
Basically, this novel is simply about an immature, screwed up, mentally disturbed, brat with a terrible attitude. The only thing the kid needs is a good, hard kick in his butt. Don't get me wrong. It's an interesting read and somewhat enjoyable, but that's all there is to it. If you want to read a great novel with real significance and superb insight about our world then read '1984' by George Orwell, the greatest novel I have ever read.

Rating:
Summary: a great book! Read it..!
Review: I don't even know how to begin. It's hard to put my feelings into words. But this hyped book has really affected me, and I recognised myself a lot. I think it has affected many people. For example the person who assassinated John Lennon. He had read it several times before the assassination. I definitely can't see any reason for killing someone after reading this book!
I think many teenagers recognise themselves in the book, because this is a story about a young man who feels like he doesn't belong anywhere. He just feels like a lost soul. That's the way you sometimes feel when you are in your teens. You try a lot of different trails before you find the right track. Many youngsters are most likely identifying themselves with Holden Caulfield -the main character in the novel. He is a normal teenager who has been kicked out of his school, Pencey Prep, because he flunked all his subjects except English. With fear of going home he spends some days in New York among bars, parks, cinemas and phoneys which he calls almost everyone. We follow him during his adventures in N. Y. It's a very tragic book, but at the same time it is very funny. Holden describes and remarks on everything in a way that makes you smile. But in a way it isn't right to smile at him, because he is a very depressed boy, who doesn't seem to like anybody or anything. It seems to me that the only things he really cares about is his little sister and being the catcher in the rye. He wants to save kids from falling from the edge of a cliff. That's what he wants to do all day.
It is his sister who convinces him to return home after the few days in N.Y., and that's also what he does. Well at home he is taken to a hospital and it's from a bed in the hospital he tells us the whole story.

The story contains loads of flashbacks which can make it a bit tricky to read. The language is also filled with lots of swearing and slang. It was written 40 years ago, (published 1959) but I'm impressed by how modern his language is. In the beginning it was a bit annoying with Holdens "americanisms", but after a while you get used to it. Then you don't bother about the "phoneys", the madmen or the other "helluva "stuff that just kills him.
The writer manages extremely well with making us sympathise with the honest Holden. You really can feel what he feels and sometimes you just want to crawl into the book and take him home with you, and show him how wonderful life actually is. But the outcast Holden can't see things like that. He's caught up in his cage and thinks everything is terrible. But I think that deep inside of him there's a great loving side. He just doesn't know where to search for it and how to express himself.

Rating:
Summary: dumbing down our children
Review: A 1651 favorable reviews, who the hell could disagree ? Well I'll try..
Been working in the various college bookstores since 1968, I had a chance to read a few pages from this book. Its literary quality is not that great, the emotional harmony with the increasingly more infantile american public signals the takeover of teeagers of the public life. We all saw the results. This is the basic affect of liberalism, with no positive vision of a possible action. However, even after 9/11/01, my son is compelled by the New York State to read this second rate fiction, alongside with " The Chocolate War", "Lisa Bright and Dark" and other "pulp-fictiony" type of "STUFF".
How about some Faulkner, Hemingway, Dreiser, Dos Passos, Vidal, even Zane.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: The funniest, smartest, most enjoyable book I have ever read. Haven't we all felt like Holden at one time or another? I still laugh every time I read it, which has been many times since it was assigned to me in 11th grade.

Rating:
Summary: Rebel with a cause
Review: Some people just aren't meant to be nice...Like Holden, he's not about to kiss anyones behind, and neither am I. Don't expect me to give you a giftwrapped, ideal review of this book. There's a lot about the book that isn't perfect, like the exclamations Holden keeps repeating time upon time. But hey, all of us use the same words and sentences all the time. And none of us is perfect.
Which makes me conclude that this book couldn't be more human. Some people like it, some don't. Like real life, where some people like you and some people don't, no matter how much you try to get into their favor.
So look upon this book like you would upon a fellow man. And don't bother me ,or anyone else for that matter, with your fierce judgements and absolute truths. Not just because of hypocrisy and prejudgement. Because I don't care. Nor does Salinger, being the rebel he based his own book on. Call it selfcentered, if you really think you must. I call it brilliant, because it's real. The atmosphere, an anxious runaway punk, the curses, the way everything presses down on you,... It's all in the down to earth, real-life concept of the book. But that's just my point of view.
A masterpiece from the depths of a genius' mind.

Rating:
Summary: The Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger
Review: I've heard that Mark David Chapman, John Lennon's assassin, often used to read this book, and since John Lennon is one of my biggest idols, the book caught my interest - standing there in the school's cupboard. I thought it must be a very special novel. Every book that can be read more than once is out of the ordinary - and particularly if somebody special enough to kill John Lennon reads it.

And very much indeed, The Catcher in Rye is a special book - one of the more special I've read. The story sets off by Holden Caulfield, the main character, telling you about him being kicked out of his fourth school - the fine and merited Pency Prep in Pennsylvania.

He takes farewell of some of his friends, travels to New York and spends a few days there. All this time he is thinking about whether he should go back to his parents or not. Everything in the book, except the quite many flashbacks, is happening within a few days.

Holden is a very special person. He doesn't really like anyone, except his little sister Phoebe. He is pessimistic and miss-trusts almost everyone he meets - which first annoyed me as reader, but after a while amused me because it's so well-written. The whole story consists of Holden telling you what he thinks about the people at Pency, the people at the other schools he went to and others he knows. The book also describes his way of thinking about ordinary things like "where do all the ducks in Central Park go when the lagoon is frozen?".

Holden is very anti-cliché in general, but he is especially against the adult society as such. He was not kicked out of the schools because he wasn't clever enough, but because he couldn't get along with the teachers, and he also couldn't cope with his parent's way of life. Perhaps it's because of his age (right between being a child and a grown-up) or because of his childhood, but he always seems to want to be rebel and revolt against society, without really knowing why. But he also wants to do something good to society and speaks well of people who do - for example some nuns that he meets. He has a dream, that some children are playing in a rye field up on a cliff, and he is the one saving (catching) them from falling off the cliff and into the ocean.

I absolutely think that The Catcher in the Rye is a great story. The ground-story is very banal with him being kicked out, going to New York, and thinking about whether he should go back home or not. One doesn't even get to know what happens when he gets back home, but even though, the story is utterly worth reading - it's the self-reflecting thoughts that Holden has and the ideas behind the book that count.

Rating:
Summary: A story that will make you laugh and make you cry
Review: The story of a young boy who goes through adolescent and experiences the "usual" and "unusual" experiences of life. A great insight to what goes on in the head of some teenagers. The book provided me with some logic of why certain things happen. A great book for teenagers, and also a great book for adults who are trying to understand teenagers.

Rating:
Summary: The Catcher in the Rye
Review: The Catcher in the Rye, a book by J. D. Salinger, is a teenager's journal. Holden's (the protagonist) troubles begin with him being kicked out of his school. It's not that he is stupid or lazy - he just does not give a damn. Holden doesn't want his parents to know that he was kicked out, and spends a week wandering around New York city, listening to jazz, talking to old friends and strangers.

Throughout the book, he tells time and again how disgusted he is with everybody he has a chance to meet or talk to. He is not a nasty person at all; on the contrary, he is kind and caring in the heart. The book is about a teenager growing up, about rebellion against accepted norms and stereotypes of behavior.

Holden does not sound like a person who you would want to have tea with, but his reasoning is interesting and captivating. The way he talks about each of the characters that he meets is just like listening to a . . . You can't explain it. You just have to read it.

I liked this book a lot. Holden makes life seem so simple and not worth living. This book plays with your mind - it seizes your mind, forces you to think the way Holden thinks. That's the main reason why I loved this book.

Rating:
Summary: Its alright if you don't understand
Review: This review is going to come of as arrogant and elitist but it has to be said so here goes. This novel has created, in my experience, only two general responses: why is this a classic or wow. The later response has always disturbed me as an adamant fan of the Catcher in the Rye. However, I believe that this difference of opinion stems from the trouble some readers have empathizing with Holden. This is not to say that due to this their opinions are invalid but instead, I believe, it points out something at the novel's core. Holden is not some sort of man of the people or every-man; instead, he is something more narrow. When someone cannot understand the perspective offered by Salinger, they often miss the point of the novel because they do not understand Holden, just like most of the people Holden himself meets throughout the story. If these statements seem incredibly evasive, as to what Holden is, then I will be happy with my review. Essentially, I believe that this novel and its characters should be left to there elusive ways and then and only then can we as readers reify the ubiquitous ideals and emotions that make up this masterpiece.