Rating: 
Summary: Holden is God
Review: Without this book, I could not go on - period. It is my light; it is my sun; it is the air that I breathe; it is the water that I thirst for to keep me alive. Holden, you are God and nothing else matters. The battles that we wage with others are meaningless if we do not first win the ones within ourselves.
Rating: 
Summary: Poignant
Review: Holden Caulfield is the ultimate disgruntled teenager attempting to find his way in life-over fifty years later, most teenagers ask the same questions and view the world in many of the same ways as Holden.
Rating: 
Summary: Plotless
Review: This book does have a plot, just a pointless one. I think I'm the only person on the planet who didn't like this book. I didn't see much of a reason for the writing of it, but is was a quick, engrossing read. I flew through this thing, I couldn't put it down. I wanted to read every word and follow every path the writer lead me through. However, in the end, I was very disappointed. There didn't seem to be any point to the story at all. Whatever, it was fun to read and I give it 3 stars just because of that.
Rating:
Summary: Still the best
Review: I never thought I would actually have to review this book; I sort of assumed that everyone knew it was great. If some people deem it worthy of less than a five-star review, though, I have to come to its defense.Since it was written, no one has been able to achieve this level of complete absorbtion. It's every bit as relatable today as it was then. It's sacred. Some people claim to have outgrown it. These are the sort of people you don't want to know.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and Funny
Review: This book might not be accurate about all teenage boys of that era, considering that few would of actually resorted to hiring a prostitute, for example. But, despite a few small seeming unrealistic elements, the book was wondering. Holden Caulfield's smart mouthed, slick personality seemed to grow on me and I couldn't put the book down because I kept wanting to learn more about him and his insane adventures. Also, the book is funny. For example, it's hilarious hearing Holden complain about his roomates not clipping their toenails over the toilet bowl. It was a great read and I read it on my own time too, not linked to school. That really shows that it must have been a really good book, which it was.
Rating:
Summary: Sweet Sixteen
Review: Overrated but still good nonetheless, "Catcher in the Rye" is a book that wisely depicts teen angst and cynical adolescence. Holden Caulfield is a confused, scared and curious sixteen-year old which doesn`t quite know how to interact. Holden avoids phonies like the plague and doesn`t want to become one of them, so he ends up going from school to school without a proper plan for his future. Ok, so the story is far from spectacular, yet J.D. Salinger manages to create an interesting and realistic protagonist who offers some intriguing and witty observations about people and their behaviour. Salinger suceeds at portraying an immature, childish and spoiled kid that has trouble growing up. Both funny and sad, this book is not a masterpiece but it`s an engaging and worthwile enough read. I expected better, if you want to know the truth, since the plot goes nowhere and the ending is a bit disappointing. Still, I really kind of liked the book, I really did. Holden was an amusing character, you could tell (especially his scenes with his little sister Phoebe). All in all, "Catcher in the Rye" is a quick and appealing read that entertains while it offers some food for thought as well. I`ve seen better, but also much worse. Catch it.
Rating:
Summary: could not put it down
Review: This book was like some kind of addicting candy, I could not put it down it was just amazing!
Rating:
Summary: I was a dumb kid . . .
Review: When I first read all this stuff, I really agreed with it. Boy, was I wrong. Looking back, I see how deep in the hole I was. Amazing how this book speaks so different to you, depending on your age and outlook on life.
Rating: 
Summary: Dull...
Review: I wanted to like this book. A few of my friends had recommended it and one in particular was obsessed and finding references to it in everything. I wanted to relate to Holden Caulfield, being sixteen and cynical.
But I couldn't.
Maybe it's because I'm a girl, but I'm fairly jaded in my views and I found Holden pretentious and boring. I also found him hypocritical; in his everpresent disgust towards the "phony" people around him, he himself became like them, a snotty rich New York brat who had nothing to complain about yet went on childish tirades about anything and everything. With everything I heard I expected this book to represent the pinnacle of unabashed teenage angst, but instead I wasted a couple of hours of my life listening to the rantings of an emotionally immature teen. No, I didn't think much of the swearing, but that wasn't a big problem in my opinion. It was the overused slang and refering to everyone as "old ______." It was the ludicrous events that Holden experienced that nowhere near stood the test of time. Most of all, it was the fact that I have known twelve year olds who had more rational thought processes than Holden ever had.
The only thing that kept this book from receiving one star from me was a.) his sister, who was the only genuine character, b.) Holden's Romeo and Juliet tirade, because I actually agreed, and c.) The incident with the swear word in the school and museum. But unless you have to read this book as an assignment, don't waste your time.
Rating:
Summary: Holden...get a grip! *much smacking ensues*
Review: I think I have it figured out. The real secret to writing a blockbuster piece of "literature" nowadays is to introduce a character that usually shows a bit of promise but ends up going nowhere (It's all society's fault. Again.). This character must bring forth complaints and problems to light that perhaps we may overlook in day to day life. But most importantly, and the truly key part...it must be eye-openingly offensive. You must assault the average readers senses, morality, and common sense. The better you accomplish this the more "acclaim" the book will get. Holden Caufield, filled to bursting with teen angst, gets kicked out of his prep school and decides to sort of meander back home over the course of 3 days just before Christmas. His insights during this journey are filled with cynical observations on phony people and the occasional zippy one-liner. What made the book get acclaim no doubt was it's examination of teen problems of the era, but notably it's heavy use of profanity. I've heard profanity in great quantities in my life, but there came a time when reading this that the whole thing just started to get a little overdone. Sort of like hearing Al Gore repeatedly say "Lock Box" during the presidential race in 2000. I'm not a violent person by nature, but I really wanted a few minutes in the ring with Holden after I had to put up with him for a few days. Save for Heathcliff in "Wuthering Heights" I cannot think of another literary character that needed a smackdown quite like this guy did. When push came to shove the stuff in this book really wasn't much different from listening to my gangsta-nephew describe how unfair life is to him because my sister won't get him an SUV for his birthday. The idea behind the book showed promise...the execution was terrible and disappointing...as I look back at those times when I was going through my teen years I will say that yes, they were turbulent and filled with feelings of powerlessness to affect my own choices and direction in life. One of the rites of passage into adulthood is to be able to look back at those years and realize that you weren't always right, and were all too often driven by impulse and hormones, and a good dose of confusion. Teen angst is nothing new and will probably be much the same 50 years from now. To those who are about to click on the "This Review didn't help me at all" button, I ask you to view this objectively...is there any real value to experiencing this book? Because hoisting the likes of Holden Caufield on your shoulders and moving forward under his inspiration will likely get you the same place he goes...nowhere.
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