Rating: 
Summary: A Very Good Read!
Review: I cannot believe that i'm 39 years old and am just now discovering this classic. I remember back when i was in elementary school and my older brother was in high school and studying this book. I knew nothing about it and simply shrugged it off as a very short novel that people had to study for English class. I can also remember that several years ago a girl once told me that i reminded her of the main character in Catcher In The Rye. I asked if i was supposed to take that as a compliment or insult, she said compliment because some of the sarcastic and funny things and the way i expressed myself reminded her of Holden Caulfield in the book. Having read the book i tend to agree with her, and i found myself laughing out loud at Holden's sarcasm and wit. This book grabbed my attention from the first page. I loved the style of writing and found that although the book was written in the 40s and some of the words and phrases are dated, for the most part the story had a contemporary flow to it, and could easily have taken place today. I've heard that this book is banned in alot of schools and i'm thinking WHY? Is it because of the swearing? Have you heard the trashy foul mouths on some of today's youth? The language in this book is nothing compared to that. This book should be required reading by all high school students, as it paints a picture of the feelings of frustration and alienation, and not fitting into the world that most every adolescent goes through at some point, and how adults and authority figures seem to be all [people] who don't know or understand anything. This book is one that i will be reading many times. I can't believe a book like this was written back in the 40s. It's an amazing book! I now understand why this used to be such an important book back in school before they banned it.This book makes me want to read all of Salinger's other writings. When a book can make me laugh right out loud i know i've found a really special book. It's extremely well-written and probably one of the most accurately perceptive writings as to how a youth that age would probably think and feel.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST BOOK EVER!!!!!
Review: This book is so down to earth and true its ammazing. You can really relate to the main character Holden on many different levels. Theres something in it for you when your 13 and something more advanced in it for when your 19. Anyone who doesn't like it does not appreciate anything other than boring books that are fake. They like to read things about perfect lives, lives that can never be true. About the whole cursing thing, who cares!? Teenagers curse all the time, its only realistic. People are not perfect. You hear a lot worse cursing from your average teen on the street. So whats so bad if its in a book!? Nothing. And there is not anything wrong with being critical about stuff, most stuff isn't that great anyway! This book will really open your eyes!
Rating:
Summary: BEST NOVEL EVER
Review: This is single-handedly the most enthralling book I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Salinger writes in such a wonderful and unique way you truly feel as though you are living the stroy along with young Holden Caufield. An amazing, amazing book. Wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Perfect
Review: Catcher in the Rye, I read the book when I was in the same mood with Holden Caulfield. So, the book explained my depression to me and made me understand the reasons of it. J.D. Salinger changed my whole life with this masterpiece, Catcher in the Rye will be my best book forever. Only one or two books can manage to impress me this much.
Rating:
Summary: A changing Holden
Review: Holden Caufield jumped into my life about seven years ago when I was in high-school. I thought he was a funny smart alec who understood how rough it can be to be a teenager. But the more times I read this novel the more I realize that, while Holden's sense of humor is funny and smart, his attitude on life is one of fierce detachment. Through his relationship with his sister Pheobe, we can see that the only thing Holden truly loves is the past, and his only dream is to halt things where they are so that the things he loves will not change in any way. He is still suffering from the loss of his brother, Allie, and can not stand it that someone so young and innocent could have departed so soon. He is embittered against his brother D.B. who, Holden feels, has sold out in order to write scripts for Hollywood movies. And he is fiercely protective of his sister Pheobe, the only thing in his life that is still fresh and innocent and the only person he truly loves. Every anecdote and conversation that Holden has screams of this obvious longing to just stop things for a bit and not have to worry about people changing or growing up. There is not a single character with whom he interacts with for more than five minutes that he doesn't wind up resenting due to some part of their personality which indicates to Holden that they have sold out, moved on, lost track and become phonies. Outside of Pheobe there is only Jane Gallagher, the girl he used to hang out with, who he can view as being the same as she always was. And although Holden mentions calling her up numerous times in the book, he never actually communicates with her in any way being too afraid of what he'd find out about her. Especially after learning at the beginning of the novel that Jane has gone out on a date with his roommate, a known ladies man. The idea that Jane is now facing the trials and tribulations of real life would be too much for Holden to deal with, resulting in a strong desire to talk to Jane, but a fear of what he might find out. Holden is left with the memory of Jane as he loved her, and the real life Pheobe who he still loves, but desperately wants to preserve, thus finding peace at the end of the novel as she rides around and around, hopefully for Holden, forever on the merry-go-round. I related to Holden when I first read him. But I find I relate to Salinger as an artist more then Holden after subsequent readings.
Rating:
Summary: An American Classic
Review: It is difficult to remember what it was like to read this book for the first time. It is also difficult to imagine a book where each new reading provides so much more illumination into the main character and his personality. I can remember finding Catcher to be funny the first time I read it. I now alternately find Holden to be walking a fine line between witty sarcasm and dangerous cynicism. He is funny, there is no way around that, but his belittling nature also causes him to dismiss much from his life that may not be perfect, but should be included. There is nothing that he, in the end, does not dismiss as being phony, whether it is the nuns with whom he shares a cup of coffee, the teacher at the end who most likely was just trying to help, the Egyptian wing of the museum, Pheobe's school...everything. As soon as one little detail slips in which is not completely on track with what he is thinking whatever it is he is contemplating becomes useless, phony, not worth dealing with. His humor is sharp and witty and I often laugh out loud while reading, but it is also an easy way for him to detach himself from a world which he no longer feels he belongs in, or wants to belong in. I can remember finding the ending ambiguous the first time I read it. I now see it as the only way it could end, with Holden finding happiness watching his sister Pheobe going forever in circles, and being able to pretend that that is never going to change. She is the one thing in his life which he still deems worthy of existence, and placing her on a merry-go-round is his best attempt to keep her there. Things change and grow and move on, but Holden refuses to accept this and is yearning to stop things forever where they are, to go back to when D.B. was a writer full of dreams and Allie was still alive. He mentions once how he used to take field trips to the museum, but how it was never the same and that takes something away from it. Even if the exhibit was the same, YOU would be different, simply by having traveled a bit farther in life, and this is what Holden is incapable of dealing with. The ending is Holden trying to keep the one thing in his life he still truly loves exactly the way she is. I can remember finding Holden's journey to be a bit all over the place. I now can see that there is not a single detail which Salinger does not use to illuminate Holden. On Holden's last night at school everything is covered with snow. He stands there holding a snowball looking for something to throw it at, but he can not bring himself to throw his snowball and disturb a fire hydrant or a park bench. Everything is peaceful under the snow and Holden can not bring himself to alter this just as he can not handle a world that keeps changing. Or there is Holden's history class, which he is failing. The only topic he is remotely interested in is the Egyptians and their process of mummification. The only thing he cares about is how to preserve things just as they are. I can remember enjoying this book the first time I read it. But I had no idea that with each subsequent reading I would find more and more to enjoy, and more and more evidence of Salinger's genius.
Rating:
Summary: A Worthy Read
Review: I missed out reading this book in High School and have been catching up especially since schools are banning this book. This book is very conservative compared to what I can see on network TV. Yes it has mature content but is a excellent work and an easy read. When asked what it was about I replied - "Life".
Rating:
Summary: This book IS different
Review: I have been reading many of the reviews on this page, some critical, some positive, and I have condensed the opinions to the following. Those who don't like the book seem to think that the book is disconnected, swears too frequently, or has no plot. Now, I realize that some negative reviewers have differing opinions, and I respect them, because the book is different from most literature, classic or otherwise.Most literature describes an event, using the characters to interact with their surroundings. There is a defined plot, there is a defined theme, the people do normal things, and everybody who reads it gets pretty much the same thing from it. For an example, I'll quickly examine a well-known piece of literature, "A Christmas Carol" by Dickens. I am not going to go into great detail, I am not an expert on this work, but when I say "A Christmas Carol" you see ghosts, kids with canes, and London. If asked "what is it about" you might say, "the redemption of Scrooge" okay great. Everyone agrees, discussion ended. "The Catcher in the Rye" is not like that. People with literal minds hate books like this, because everyone who reads it, takes something different from it. These people say, "nothing happens, the symbolism was great, but there was no plot". To them I say, "Who cares?". I want to meet the person who declared that every book needs clearly defined plot, theme and grammar, to be good. Writing is about more than following the proper steps. A monkey can be taught to follow steps, a third grade student can learn to fill in blanks. Writing is about communicating. Some critics look at a work of Dickens and say, "Now, there's a good book, that's how writing is to be done. All the concepts are well thought out, the grammar is letter-perfect, and the word choice is outstanding!" And that is great for them, I'm excited that they feel this way, now we know that there is yet another job that a computer can be taught to do, critique literature based on grammar, punctuation and spelling. These rules are rules we give our elementary students so they can be understood when they write. If you want to buy a book, so you can examine grammar and word usage, don't buy this one. Salinger didn't sit down to write a book for his college English professor. If you want to look at his work from that standpoint, then it would be an awful book. Fortunately for the human race, writing is not about that at all. Writing is not only about being understood, writing is about feeling, writing is about telling another human being, what an experience is like. This is what Salinger has done. He has captured the teenage experience, the anger, the frustration, the disappointment, the feeling of hopelessness, the paranoia, and the feeling of looking out at society and realizing that it's not a nice place to be. Salinger did not write about the idea teenager, if he did, Holden would've sounded like a member of the Brady Bunch "The world is a happy place". Often, people like to rationalize what happened in this book, by saying, "Holden is sick, he is unusual, nobody else goes through this" this is not the case. True, Holden did move to California, apparently to seek some type of counseling, but he is far from unusual, he is truthful to himself, he is telling about the world the way it is, not the way he wants it to be. In the book, Salinger is communicating to two types of people. On one hand he is telling the people whose lives have been like Holden's that someone understands them. Someone else has been though what you've been through, it's a normal thing. And he is telling the Brady Bunch people "WAKE UP! Take off your rosy colored glasses, the world is NOT one big happy place, at least not for everyone. Yes, somewhere in the distance, there is war and hunger, but there is something more, and it's right next to you. There are people who can't find the most basic human need, the need to be loved and accepted." Holden feels lost and alone, he feels like nobody cares about him, he feels rejected by his family, and he feels hopeless because he everyone and everything he knows either lets him down, or lies to him. This is real life, this is what it's like to have everything not go your way. If you are looking for fairy tale or soap opera, this is the wrong book. You also shouldn't read this book if you are going to use a holier-than-thou attitude and judge everything that is wrong. To read this book, you need to be realistic, and empathetic. This book is about the bad side of life, it can sometimes be hard to follow, and you may reach the end and wonder what happens next. Read it a few times in that case, you may learn that this kind of writing is not about what happens next, it's about what already happened, and most importantly; why?
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Read
Review: I read this book when I was 17 and it absolutely blew me away. Holden's sad desperate angst and terrific need for answers to this phony world is exactly what hooked me. His gradual breakdown is terrible to watch but, like a traffic accident, you can't turn away. Yes, It has pretty raw language in it but this only enhances the book's realism and makes it that much more real and true.
Rating:
Summary: a novel you can not ignore
Review: I first read "The Catcher In the Rye" this past year as a freshman in high school, as part of an oral presentation. I was completely amazed at this novel. Holden Caulfield is a youth of sixteen years that embarks on an odyssey of self discovery. I found Holden, a character in a 1949 setting to be very real even to myself as a contemporary teenager. He is someone that teens can relate to because the issues Holden faces in "Catcher" are still the issues teenagers today battle. "Catcher" has been challenged and banned since 1951 because of the frequent use of profanity. However, the expletives are applied artistically to frame Holden's temperament and to express the hidden issues of the teenager. I am not one to curse excessively or frequently. However, I found "The Catcher in the Rye" to be an exceptional book, surpassing my original skeptical expectations.
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