Goodreads | The Catcher in the Rye

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Big rated it:

05/08/08

Read in March, 2008

J.D. Salinger’s ‘Catcher in the Rye’ was published on July 16, 1951. It was his first novel. It became very popular among young adolescents yet not so popular with older generations. I personally thoroughly enjoyed every part of this book. I felt very close to Holden Caulfield, the main character in the story, as I read it.
Holden Caulfield, a sixteen year old boy from New York, was quite unlike kids his age. He had no interest in being popular or social. From the very beginning he lets ...more J.D. Salinger’s ‘Catcher in the Rye’ was published on July 16, 1951. It was his first novel. It became very popular among young adolescents yet not so popular with older generations. I personally thoroughly enjoyed every part of this book. I felt very close to Holden Caulfield, the main character in the story, as I read it.
Holden Caulfield, a sixteen year old boy from New York, was quite unlike kids his age. He had no interest in being popular or social. From the very beginning he lets us into part of his personal life. His parents are very touchy and his mother is especially protective. It becomes clear very quickly where Holden’s interests lie and where they start to veer off. He tends to lean away from the fake in the world and is a teller of what is real.
Holden is not a fan of the movies at all. He saw his brother, D.B., throw away his natural writing talent all for a large Hollywood check. Any other boy Holden’s age would have been absolutely ecstatic to have a sibling working amongst the stats in Hollywood, but not Holden. It was all far too “phony” for him; and phony is his worst enemy.
Salinger’s use of sarcasm and irony is beautiful and hilarious. As I read through each chapter I found myself highlighting funny, sarcastic things Holden would say or think (and trust me, there are DOZENS of time where this occurs.) One specific time in Chapter 8 he is talking to a cab driver who is acting like a real fool. Holden says to the readers, “He certainly was good company. Terrific personality.”
Salinger’s character Holden is actually a lot like Salinger in his real life. Like Holden, Salinger was known for his reclusive nature. Uninterested with the fakeness of the world, Holden keeps his distance from phony people. After Salinger’s success of ‘The Catcher in the Rye’, he slowed down his publishing and slowly but surely drifted out of the public eye. To this day Salinger refuses any offers to have ‘The Catcher’ put on the big Hollywood screen. Salinger’s ex lover, Joyce Maynard, even once said that, “The only person who might ever have played Holden Caulfield would have been J.D. Salinger.” It seems to me that it is no coincidence that Holden is no fan of Hollywood and that Salinger in real life and doesn’t want anything to do with turning his popular novel into a movie. Holden says, “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s the movies, Don’t even mention them to me.”
Since I have learned more about Salinger’s personal life, I recognize a lot of Salinger’s personality in Holden. In the story, Holden has overbearing parents much like Salinger’s parents. Salinger said his mother was over protective. Salinger has one sibling, a sister, which is ironic because it is Holden’s sister Phoebe who has a profound influence on Holden. He often talks about her with very high regards.
Holden is not a character who tried to sugarcoat the way he sees the fakeness around him. Holden, making fun of the people around him, often says things like “you would’ve puked” and “it was very phony”. I think that is another one of the reasons I like his character so much. For example, he is quite upset with the fact that his brother D.B. is selling his work to Hollywood instead of using his talents for his own pleasure. Holden even says that his brother is his favorite author. Salinger himself is a man who wrote for his own pleasure and likeness.
I made a similar connection to a girl named Sally that Holden likes in the book, to a real life lover of Salinger’s named Oona. Oona O’Neil was self-absorbed and stuck up, according to Salinger, yet he still phoned and wrote her letters quite often. Holden’s “Oona” in the story was a girl named Sally Hayes. Though he found her extremely irritating he thought she was very attractive as well. After spending a day with her, he pointed out about a dozen instances where he thought she was being “phone as hell”. By the end of their only meeting in the book, Holden says to Sally, “You give me a royal pain in the ass if you want to know the truth.” The real life Oona O’Neil ended up breaking it off with Salinger and married the famous actor, Charlie Chaplin.
Despite Holden being a sixteen year old teenage boy he acts much older than his age. One time in the story he has the chance to be with a prostitute but instead of acting like a pig, he starts to feel sorry for her and instead tried to have a conversation with her. He even offers to pay her for good conversation instead of for sex. He also stays alone in hotels randomly, drinks at bars and clubs often, and even tells people he’s older than he really is. But the reason I find his character mature and intellectual is for other reasons.
Holden does not hold money or material things to be really important. He is more excited to hang out with his kid sister than he is any other time in the entire book. He is content with something that would probably be boring to other guys his age.
Like many teenagers, Holden is often depressed. The way he deals with it most times actually breaks my heart in a way. He likes to talk to his deceased kid brother, Allie. He will take a real event that he can remember where he was talking with him and pretend he is talking to him again. He says, “I started talking out loud to Allie. I do that sometimes when I get very depressed.” It is really very heart wrenching to hear Holden talk about his brother. One of my favorite moments in the book is when Holden and Phoebe are talking in Phoebe’s room and she points out that Holden doesn’t like anything. Holden responds quickly by saying, “I like Allie. And I like doing what I’m doing right now. Sitting here with you and talking and thinking about stuff…” Phoebe says to Holden, “Allie’s dead-you always say that! If somebody’s dead and everything, and in heaven then it isn’t really--”. Holden interrupts her with his final comeback, “I know he’s dead! Don’t you think I know that? I can still like him, though, can’t I? just because somebody’s dead, you don’t just stop liking them, for God’s sake- especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that’re alive and all.”
One of the most beautiful things about ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ is the way Salinger uses symbolism. From Holden’s red hunting hat, to Jane Gallagher’s checker playing technique, Salinger wrapped up more than meets the eye into things you never would have dreamed. The main thing that drew me into this story is the realness of Holden’s character. He is a teenage boy with a teenage boy’s mind but seems to have far more common sense than anyone else around him. He is not a jock. He is not a math whiz or a science whiz. He is not really interested in sports. He sort of makes up his own category; a category that I call ‘the genuine’. He is on his own a lot and loves it at first, but happiness and love are meant to be shared with others. It has a much less meaning when by itself and he realizes it by the end of the novel. He is growing intellectually little by little throughout the whole book. He realizes what really makes him happy. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone and everyone who would like to read a story that could possibly change the way they view the world. I have honestly laughed outloud to myself as I read this story. Yes, there is talk about drinking, sex, and lots of cussing, but if you are going to avoid reading this story because of that then your missing out on a beautiful masterpiece.
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David rated it:

02/02/08

Okay, I need to review this book. Like your standard-issue pill-popping, prostitute-bonking televangelist, I need to spread the Word. And the Word is that this is the best book of all time, and--um, well, all you haters can just step the fuck off. (With all due respect, & etc.)

Imagine that you are in the Maury Povich show audience, if you dare. You're sandwiched between an obese women wearing a t-shirt with air-brushed running horses on the front and a tall, oily man who sm...more Okay, I need to review this book. Like your standard-issue pill-popping, prostitute-bonking televangelist, I need to spread the Word. And the Word is that this is the best book of all time, and--um, well, all you haters can just step the fuck off. (With all due respect, & etc.)

Imagine that you are in the Maury Povich show audience, if you dare. You're sandwiched between an obese women wearing a t-shirt with air-brushed running horses on the front and a tall, oily man who smells oddly like canned cat food. Out comes one of those notoriously slutty, out-of-control teenage girls who are sentenced to one of those ubiquitous slutty girl boot camps. Miss Thang makes her entrance in a tight pink midriff-bearing shirt with the word "Pussycat" sequinned right over her nascent hoo-hahs. You, the audience member, as well as your equine-celebrating neighbor (and also, less passionately, Mr. Fancy Feast) stand up and boo the living heck of this little strumpet. Who does she think she is? Doesn't she realize she's have wanton sex when she's thirteen and you didn't get any until you were seventeen-and-a-half, and even then it wasn't very wanton?

What was I talking about again? Oh, yeah, Catcher in the Rye. With respect to this novel, I, David, am that thirteen-year-old strumpet. All of you are going to stand up and boo me because I am having hot young sex all the time. But, in the case of this metaphor, having hot young sex all the time is really reading this novel all the time. And I will continue having this metaphorical hot young sex all the time no matter what any of you think.

I think Catcher in the Rye becomes passe to many an adult reader because Holden Caulfield is symbolic to them of a set of adolescent complexes and neuroses. But the search for authenticity and sincerity, as opposed to pomposity and posture, is viewed as adolescent only by the hopelessly cynical. (Disclaimer: I am an admitted cynic myself, but not to such an extent that I never experience disappointment about Life As It Is.)

You think I'm defensive? You think I'm huffy? Well, shucks, it's mainly because... well, Holden Caulfield is me. Many people might view this sort of affiliation by an adult as juvenile, and I'm okay with that. When I first read this novel in high school, I realized that J.D. Salinger had written a novel about me. Yeah, yeah, I know a lot of "misunderstood" teens felt the same thing, but I never stopped thinking that. I never grew out of him, and he never grew out of me. That's unfortunate, you might claim; haven't I "evolved" at all since my sophomore year in high school? It's a difference in paradigm, I suppose, but I never really understood why acquiescing to the absurd social conventions of day-to-day life might be seen as an evolution. (Likewise, if a culture grows used to war, for example, do we say this is a positive adaptation?)

I've really meandered around here, but this is some important shit. I thank you, as any good evangelist should, for humoring me. If you're still one of the booers at the Maury Povich show, picture that I'm flashing my business at you, waving my arms, and yelling: "Sit down, sit down! Y'all ain't nothin' but hatahs! You jus' jealous you ain't gettin' this!"

I'm one touchy sonuvabitch about this, aren't I? (Isn't it great that people can feel so strongly about literature? I think so.) But before I'm sent off to that slutty girl boot camp in the woods, I think it bears mentioning that perhaps if you don't like this book, then you don't like me. And while you are very much free not to like me, I really wouldn't recommend it. ...less

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Jason rated it:

03/21/08

Read in March, 2008

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

The CCLaP 100: In which I read a hundred so-called "classics" for the first time, then write reports on whether they deserve the label
Review #10: The Catcher in the Rye, by JD Salinger (1951)

The story in a nutshell:
Not so much of a traditional plot-based stor...more

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Kathy rated it:

03/25/08

I read the end of The Catcher in the Rye the other day and found myself wanting to take Holden Caulfield by the collar and shake him really, really hard and shout at him to grow up. I suppose I've understood for some time now that The Catcher in the Rye -- a favorite of mine when I was sixteen -- was a favorite precisely because I was sixteen. At sixteen, I found Holden Caulfield's crisis profoundly moving; I admired his searing indictment of society, his acute understanding of human nature, his...more I read the end of The Catcher in the Rye the other day and found myself wanting to take Holden Caulfield by the collar and shake him really, really hard and shout at him to grow up. I suppose I've understood for some time now that The Catcher in the Rye -- a favorite of mine when I was sixteen -- was a favorite precisely because I was sixteen. At sixteen, I found Holden Caulfield's crisis profoundly moving; I admired his searing indictment of society, his acute understanding of human nature, his extraordinary sensitivity (I mean, come on, he had a nervous breakdown for God's sake, he had to be sensitive). At sixteen, I wanted to marry Holden Caulfield. At forty, I want to spank him. After all, Holden's indictment of society boils down to the "insight" that everybody is a phony. That's the kind of insight a sixteen year old considers deep. A forty year old of the grown-up variety recognizes Holden's insight as superficial and banal, indulging in the cheapest kind of adolescent posturing. It suggests a grasp of society and of human nature that's about as complex as an episode of Dawson's Creek. Holden and his adolescent peers typically behave as though the fate they have suffered (disillusionment and the end of innocence) is unique in human history. He can't see beyond the spectacle of his own disillusionment (and neither can J. D. Salinger); for all his painful self-consciousness, Holden Caulfield is not really self-aware. He can't see that he himself is a phony.

Compare Salinger's novel of arrested development, for instance, with a real bildungsroman, Great Expectations. Holden Caulfield is an adolescent reflecting on childhood and adolescence; Pip Pirrip is an adult reflecting on childhood and adolescence. Holden Caulfield has the tunnel vision of teendom, and he depicts events with an immediacy and absorption in the experience that blocks out the broader context, the larger view. Pip Pirrip has the wonderful double vision of a sensitive adult recollecting the sensitive child he used to be; he conveys at the same time the child's compelling perspective and the adult's thoughtful revision of events. While Holden Caulfield litters his narrative with indignant exposes of phonies and frauds, Pip Pirrip skillfully concentrates on "the spurious coin of his own make" -- that is, without letting the child Pip and the adolescent Pip in on the joke, he exposes himself as a phony. Pip Pirrip grows up. Holden Caulfield has a nervous breakdown.

I suppose the only reason I begrudge him his breakdown is that so many in our culture -- many more, unfortunately, than just the legitimate adolescents among us -- seem fixated on Holden as a symbol of honesty and socially-liberating rebellion. We view nervous collapse and dysfunction as a badge of honor, a sign -- to put it in Caulfieldian terms -- that we are discerning enough to see through all the crap. Our celebration of overwrought disaffection reminds me of the last sentence of Joyce’s Araby: “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” Here is the adolescent pose non-pareil. Equally self-accusing and self-aggrandizing, it captures the adolescent at the precise moment when his own disillusionment becomes the object of his grandiose and self-dramatizing vision. That’s the kind of crap that Holden Caulfield (and J. D. Salinger) cannot see through. And it is often the kind of crap that we “adults” like to slosh around in.

The Barney beating of several years ago is another symptom of our arrested adolescence, our inability to ride the wave of disillusion into the relatively calm harbor of adulthood -- as though flailing around in the storm and raging at the wind were in themselves marks of distinction and a superior sensibility. I remember a news story about a woman in a Barney costume being seriously injured when a rabid (and probably drunken) anti-Barney fanatic attacked the big purple dinosaur at some public event. Now, I don’t know the age of the Barney-beater, but the act itself is a supremely adolescent one, in which the impulsive response to disillusionment is to lash out at those symbols of childhood which made the biggest dupes of us. At the dawn of adolescence, when Barney begins to appear cloying and false, it seems natural to want to beat up on him, as though it was Barney himself who pulled one over on us instead of our own poignant and necessary misapprehension of the nature of things. I could see Holden Caulfield beating up on Barney (at least rhetorically), and I could see Holden Caulfield missing Barney (as he misses all the “phonies” at the end of the book), but I cannot see Holden Caulfield accepting the postlapsarian Barney on new terms, as a figure who is meant for children and not for him. For all his touching poses about wanting to be the “catcher in the rye,” what Holden really wants is not to save children but to be a child again....less

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Melanie rated it:

06/19/07

bookshelves: classics

Read in November, 2006

As a child, we are protected from life. There really aren’t many choices available, and we are certainly sheltered from a lot of the harder parts of life. It seems like children don’t feel the need for meaning quite like adults do- maybe because they aren’t forced to face the daily grind. There’s boredom, but that is not what I am talking about. Kids don’t really have to compromise like adults do. As you enter adulthood you could start to see things and people as phony or fake. Maybe n...more As a child, we are protected from life. There really aren’t many choices available, and we are certainly sheltered from a lot of the harder parts of life. It seems like children don’t feel the need for meaning quite like adults do- maybe because they aren’t forced to face the daily grind. There’s boredom, but that is not what I am talking about. Kids don’t really have to compromise like adults do. As you enter adulthood you could start to see things and people as phony or fake. Maybe not people, but certain tasks or events certainly are. There’s a constant struggle in all of us between the meaningful and the mundane; the temporary and the eternal. There is a conflict, simply of time and energy. We desire the intentional and struggle towards spirituality; all while trying to earn a paycheck, wash our dishes, and sleep each night. It kind of reminds me of what I picture an AA meeting to look like. I think, rarely could someone find a place where people are more vulnerable, open, and honest with each other. Even if they win over addiction… how could life ever feel as full after that brief moment shared with others who completely understand? At the same time, the point of those meetings is to help people live- not just free from drugs, but maybe free to live in the mundane? Free to enjoy the dance of life, the needs of the soul balanced with the chores too. This doesn’t have to be depressing, but it does require compromise- or a sense of a time and place for everything- including the day-to-day.

Catcher in the rye touches on some of these questions. Holden struggles with growing up. He sees everything as meaningless and adults as predictable and fake. I think he is mourning the loss of his innocence… maybe not just right from wrong, but the loss of dreams growing up seems to require. Holden, while at the museum that is exactly the same as it was when he was a kid says he likes it, because each time you visit "the only thing that would be different would be you…" and goes on to say "certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone. I know that's impossible, but it’s too bad anyway." One thing I thought of to help explain Holden's struggle with growing up is this: Coffee. When I was a kid, I used to smell my dad's coffee- that strong sugary-sweet smell of roasted beans. You wait for your chance to be let in on this excellent secret. Thinking it is just the caffeine that is preventing your parents from giving you a taste. Finally, they do and then all your dreams of that sweet flavor come crashing down! It's wrecked! Coffee isn't at all what you thought it was! That is, until the day you give it another chance, you start to be able to smell and taste the different tones coffee has. You can appreciate it for its varied, and almost living flavors. You see… Coffee isn't bad- it just wasn't what you always thought. The key is in finding the hidden flavors and getting over the fact that it will never taste as sweet as it smells. I think Holden struggled with the initial shock, that although life is more bitter than it "smells", or than you think it will be, there are the hidden joys and sweet flavors that make it almost better!

This book doesn’t really set out to answer any of the questions it raises. Holden experiences the extremes of entering into adulthood and relates it in a way everyone, maybe especially, teenagers can understand. He is a flawed character who is desperate and depressed. As the reader, you can see why he feels the way he does, as he explains it so well you almost feel it with him. However, you can also see the flaws in his thinking. The author doesn't romanticize Holden's life, you don't read it thinking he has some special key to life that we all need. You simply feel his struggle to fit in and hope eventually he can learn to play the game and see the beauty that is there, hidden a little....less

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Erica added it

05/15/08

Read in January, 2008

recommended to Erica by: Chad Barwick

Erica Campbell
Period 2
May 16, 2008
The Catcher in the Rye Book Review
If anyone wants to read a great book about a rebellious teenage school boy and his quixotic, adventurous experiences in New York, then The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is the perfect book. The main character, Holden Caulfield, is a 16 year old boy who seems to be misunderstood by everyone around him. He views most people as a bunch of phonies and is constantly in search of sincerity. He lives in a high class, rich...more Erica Campbell
Period 2
May 16, 2008
The Catcher in the Rye Book Review
If anyone wants to read a great book about a rebellious teenage school boy and his quixotic, adventurous experiences in New York, then The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is the perfect book. The main character, Holden Caulfield, is a 16 year old boy who seems to be misunderstood by everyone around him. He views most people as a bunch of phonies and is constantly in search of sincerity. He lives in a high class, rich apartment in Manhattan, just as the author J.D. Salinger similarly grew up in a fashionable apartment district in Manhattan. The author seems to incorporate much of his own life characteristics into Holden’s life in the book. Not only do they live similar lifestyles but they both attended many different prep-schools where they did not fit in socially or academically. They also share similar romantic lives in that they were both infatuated with one girl yet they never could get a hold of her. The book is great because Holden has many interesting things happen in New York and his cynical personality can be funny at times.
At the beginning of the book, Holden attends Pencey Prep in Agerstown, Pennsylvania, where he is the roommate of a very annoying jock, Stradlater. When Holden finds out that Stradlater is going on a date with Jane Gallagher, who has been Holden’s crush since the summer they spent together, he gets a little annoyed at him. This is the first person of many in the book that Holden sees as a phony and insincere. Holden dislikes all people in the book who lead perfect but fake lifestyles and are the center of attention in the world where he is misunderstood and forgotten. He rebels against the stereotypical personality whom he believes to be average and phony.

In all the fancy prep schools his parents pay for him to attend he has no motivation to work hard and get good grades. Holden does not want to grow up or leave his childhood behind because that is his place of comfort. He rebels against excelling in school because that could be seen as a sign of growth and maturity in his character. Holden decides to run away from school during Christmas break and go to New York to find himself and lose his virginity. He spends an evening going to nightclubs, has an unsuccessful encounter with a prostitute, and the next day meets an old girl friend whom he insults and makes cry. All of the random things he does throughout the book support the idea that he feels lost and misunderstood in the world. His adventure to find himself leads him to rebel against his morals, family, the people around him, and growing up.
As the novel continues, Holden seems to always exclude himself from the world around him. He copes by alienating himself from everyone as a source of protection for himself. He wears his red hunting hat in the story to comfort the instability he has in his life. The only person that he feels understands him is his ten year old little sister Phoebe, whom he loves very much. Although she is very young, Holden talks to her about a lot in his life because he feels she is always listening and caring. His immaturity is enlightened by the fact that his closest friend, Phoebe, is only ten years old, and she herself even sees that immaturity in him.
One place that Holden loves to visit in the novel is the Museum of National History. Holden said, “The best thing in the museum was that everything always stayed right where it was. Nobody’d move…Nobody’d be different. The only thing that would be different would be you.” The museum brings back many memories of when he was a kid, yet he is disturbed by the fact that every time he returns, he has changed a little. He wants to stay a child forever and never have to face the challenges of being an adult. He fears growing up will introduce him to conflict and interaction with other people. He is also confused by the death of his little brother, Allie, and fears that situations like that are common in the adult world.
The book overall expresses Holden’s thoughts through the many challenges he goes through while living in a world where he feels lost. This is a great book because not only does it have an interesting plot but it also reveals many strong themes but primarily a lot of rebellion. Holden’s character is very rebellious because instead of living his made up life he chooses not to simply because he does not feel it is right for him. This is a very thought provoking novel and enlightens your eyes to the real world you live in. The Catcher in the Rye is definitely a book worth reading.
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Obie rated it:

05/15/08

Read in January, 2008

recommended to Obie by: Chad Barwick
recommends it for: People under the age of 104

I have always hated reading. Ever since I was a little kid and looking at the pictures in books I could not stand it. Often I was grounded until I “read” the books, the “read” is in parenthesis because it was more sitting and waiting than it was reading. Reading over packets of information was all right, but it was the fact that I was being forced to stare at paper for hours on end that I disliked so much. And then I found J.D. Salinger’s work, The Catcher and the Rye.
I...more I have always hated reading. Ever since I was a little kid and looking at the pictures in books I could not stand it. Often I was grounded until I “read” the books, the “read” is in parenthesis because it was more sitting and waiting than it was reading. Reading over packets of information was all right, but it was the fact that I was being forced to stare at paper for hours on end that I disliked so much. And then I found J.D. Salinger’s work, The Catcher and the Rye.
I guess the reason I enjoyed the book so much was because of the main character, protagonist, and cynic, Holden Caufield’s mindset of rebelling against everything, as a sixteen-year-old boy. Every single occurrence in his life he involved some sort of rebellion to it. The story is set in the 1950’s. There is no real town setting; however he makes it noticeable that he acts within a mental hospital and also at schools. Currently he attends his fourth school, Pencey Prep that he is about to be expelled from due to failing four of his five classes. The only class he passed was English. The novel takes place sometime soon before the school lets out for Christmas break.
The book opens up with a Saturday in Agerstown, Pennsylvania. This is where his school was, not his home back in New York. Holden was kicked out of every prep school he attended which showed the normal teenage signs of laziness and lack of care. Personally, I think he brought all the negative consequences upon himself by never looking for anything positive. Pessimistic people are often blessed with pessimistic conclusions.
The Catcher in the Rye includes everything a person of change would enjoy reading. From relationships to underage drinking, this book has it all. Holden could not take a relationship past just the normal friendship to save his life. He had several mental blocks, which kept his relationships with girls just friends. As he walked back down from the hotel he was staying in, by sneaking back home without telling his parents three days early from school, he began to think about one of his past relationships. That was with Jane Gallagher. He really loved her, but due to his mental “illnesses” he was unable to express it in a proper way she would enjoy and love him back with. A depressing thought Holden must undergo each day is the fact that his roommate Ward Stradlater was going on dates with Jane.
With all the negative thoughts that go through Holden he still has some thoughts that are positive in a way of his family. His little sister Phoebe, his little brother Allie, and even his older brother D.B. are all expressed in likeness, particularly his little sister. His older brother, however, is no longer with him for he moved to Hollywood. The main theme, rebellion, really affected his family and friends. But, there was more than that; the truth brought more to the story. The main conflict is man versus man between Holden and himself. He constantly wants himself to be able to associate with people on the older and mature level, more on the other hand he wants a sexual experience. Holden consistently rejects the world and says everyone is just a “phony.” Which this also is very similar of how the world is today and stories which can be related to our own lives, especially this one, keep you wanting to read more.
Holden’s feelings of neglect took the story to a new level. His only true friend turned out to be Phoebe and that being his sister was not the same. She is not the typical young girl, but one that grows on you and makes you come to know that she is going to make everything all right. Holden is able to talk to her about anything. With him having this one friend, his sister, that he is able to do this and talk with helps the reader understand his actual feelings for he only seems to let them out to her.
The Catcher in the Rye was first introduced and published in the United States in 1951. Intentions of this book were for it to be an adult reader, but today it sells over two hundred and fifty thousand copies each year, and a total of over sixty-five million sells. Jerome David Salinger was born in the city of New York in 1919. He was particularly similar to Holden Caufield. Salinger also attended several prepatory schools, but eventually came set at Valley Forge Military Academy in 1934. I believe that by Salinger having first-hand experiences of most actions in this book, he was able to better make across points within the writing. He could translate life occurrences to extremely believable fiction very well.
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Mary marked it as to-read

07/19/08

bookshelves: to-read

It was on this day, July 16, in 1951 that the J.D. Salinger's first and only novel, The Catcher in the Rye, was published (books by this author). Salinger had started his career as a writer back in 1940, at a time when the short stories published in magazines were still one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the United States. Salinger published a number of short stories in the group of magazines known as "the slicks," magazines that included The Saturday Evening Post, Madem...more It was on this day, July 16, in 1951 that the J.D. Salinger's first and only novel, The Catcher in the Rye, was published (books by this author). Salinger had started his career as a writer back in 1940, at a time when the short stories published in magazines were still one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the United States. Salinger published a number of short stories in the group of magazines known as "the slicks," magazines that included The Saturday Evening Post, Mademoiselle, Good Housekeeping, and Collier's. But the magazine that he most wanted to publish a story in was The New Yorker.

In 1941, Salinger sent The New Yorker a story called "Slight Rebellion Off Madison," about a troubled teenager named Holden Caulfield and The New Yorker bought it. "Slight Rebellion Off Madison," was not written in Holden Caulfield's voice; it was narrated in the third person. In one of the first descriptions of Holden Caulfield, Salinger wrote, "While riding on Fifth Avenue buses, girls who knew Holden often thought they saw him walking past Saks' or Altman's or Lord & Taylor's, but it was usually somebody else."

The story was about Holden's date with a girl named Sally Hayes. He complains to her that that he hates everything about New York, including buses and taxi cabs and movies, but eventually he calms down and tells her that he'll come to her house and help her trim the Christmas tree. The New Yorker bought the story in November of 1941, and planned to run it in their Christmas issue.

That December, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, and Salinger's story was put on hold. It was considered too trivial in a time of war. Salinger kept submitting stories to The New Yorker for the next few years, even as he was drafted into the Army, but his stories kept getting rejected.

At the start of his Army enlistment, Salinger was stationed in England, so he didn't see any combat. He was still able to write and submit short stories for publication, and he published a series of stories about Army life. He told his agent that he was working on a set of stories about Holden Caulfield, but he didn't want to publish any of them because he thought he could put them together in a novel. Then, in June of 1943, Salinger learned that he would be deployed in the ground force invasion of Normandy on D-Day.

Salinger's division hit the beach in the fifth hour of the invasion, and for the next several months Salinger saw some of the bloodiest fighting of the war, including the Battle of the Bulge. Between 50 and 200 soldiers in his division were killed or wounded every day. At the end of the war, Salinger checked into an Army general hospital in Nuremberg, suffering from a nervous breakdown. He spent several months recuperating.

It was after Salinger's release from the hospital that he sent out for publication the first Holden Caulfield story narrated by Holden Caulfield himself, a story called "I'm Crazy." It was published in Collier's in December of 1945. One year later, in 1946, The New Yorker finally published "Slight Rebellion Off Madison," which they had been holding onto since before the war began. J.D. Salinger had finally become a New Yorker writer, something he'd been dreaming of for more than a decade.

Salinger continued publishing short stories for the rest of the 1940s, most of them in The New Yorker, and in 1949, the editor Robert Giroux wrote him to ask if he wanted to publish a collection of short stories. Giroux didn't hear back from Salinger for months, and then, one day, Salinger walked into his office.

Giroux said, "A tall, sad-looking young man with a long face and deep-set black eyes walked in, saying, 'It's not my stories that should be published first, but the novel I'm working on … about this kid in New York during the Christmas holidays.'" Giroux said he'd love to publish it, but when it was finished one of his superiors thought the kid in the book seemed too crazy. So Salinger published The Catcher in the Rye with Little, Brown and Company, and it came out on this day in 1951.

The New York Times ran a review titled "Aw, the World's a Crumby Place" that poked fun at Salinger's style. The New Yorker refused to run any excerpts of the novel, because they said that the children in it were unbelievably intelligent, and the style of the novel was too "showoffy." But despite the mixed reviews, The Catcher in the Rye reached the best-seller list after being in print just two weeks, and it stayed there for more than six months. It has gone on to sell more than 60 million copies. It has been at one time or another both the most banned book in America and one of the most assigned books in American classrooms.

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Kaitlin rated it:

05/08/08

Catcher in the Rye
By J.D. Salinger
Reviewed by Kaitlin Westfall

Rebellious teenage years can be tough, but author J.D. Salinger gives a little insight on what they were like for Holden Caulfield. Holden is a troubled teen who is once again kicked out of school. Holden, the narrator of the book, takes you on his journey through rebellion. In this story, Holden allows you to “witness” drunken phone calls, awkward train rides and uncomfortable dates. To Holden life in Agerstown Pennsylv...more Catcher in the Rye
By J.D. Salinger
Reviewed by Kaitlin Westfall

Rebellious teenage years can be tough, but author J.D. Salinger gives a little insight on what they were like for Holden Caulfield. Holden is a troubled teen who is once again kicked out of school. Holden, the narrator of the book, takes you on his journey through rebellion. In this story, Holden allows you to “witness” drunken phone calls, awkward train rides and uncomfortable dates. To Holden life in Agerstown Pennsylvania does not seem so exciting, but to the reader, an adventure has been taken on.
J.D. Salinger has a different style of writing than most authors you may read. At first is can come across as shocking as you read about Holden and Carl Luce talking about their sex lives, but as you continue, it comes across as humorous and it shows the characters true personalities. The style of writing allows the teens or even the adults reading it, to relate to the characters. Not everybody speaks proper English, so the diction in the story is that of real life to most.
The characters in the story are just as exciting as the plot. J.D. Salinger was seen as a recluse by many people. He also had a true passion for drama and continued to do it even though his father did not like it. Holden’s character may come from some of Salinger’s own experiences. J.D. Salinger does an excellent job of describing each character in a thorough manner. Salinger goes into enough detail to allow the character to be understood, but not to an overwhelming extreme. Ackley kid, a classmate of Holden’s is described as an annoying, nosy, pimply and unhygienic boy. Salinger is very good at having all characteristics consistent throughout the story. At one point in the story, Ackley kid comes into Holden’s room and rummages around his dresser. Salinger drops subtle hits about each character, which allows the reader to really get to know each character.
Holden tells the story from his point of view, but the story can also be seen through other characters eyes as well. The dialogue in the story allows the other characters opinions to leak out. The story’s main emphasis is on Holden, but the lives of other characters are shown. The book even goes as far as to describe the lives of some of his teachers. The amazing detail the book really allows the reader to enjoy the story. You can form your own opinion on certain adventures that Holden embarks on, but the detail also allows you to sit back and enjoy your read. The detail does the thinking for you. There are not many gaps to be filled in the story!
Holden, the main character and in my opinion, the life of the book, is the whole reason for the book. He can been seen as funny but at the same time a little troubled. Holden is not afraid to say what he is thinking. When he decides to leave Pencey Prep (his high school) early, he yells out loud “Sleep tight ya morons”. Holden even goes as far as calling people a royal pain in the ass or even a bastard. Holden speaks his mind.
Phoebe, Holden’s younger sister, helps the reader understand the true “lesson” of the book. Phoebe looks up to Holden and would do anything for him. She even gives up her Christmas dough, so that Holden will have some money. Phoebe does not see the troubled and rebellious Holden, she sees her big brother who at times can mess up. In the story it is easy to see, that Phoebe looks up to and cares about Holden, but the same can be said for Holden. Phoebe is the one person Holden can count on. Phoebe calms his rebellious side down. She is the one person he feels he can be real with and that truly understands him. Holden wants to protect Phoebe, and does not want her to go down the same path he did.
This novel would not be classified as a romance novel, but there is a little romance and love in the story. In the story, there are two “love interests”, Jane Gallagher and Sally Hayes. Jane was a girl that used to live right next door to Holden that he would play Checkers with. Then there was Sally Hayes. Holden really liked her. Holden told Sally that they should run away and get married and live in the mountains. When he was with Sally he always seemed to be very spontaneous.
From the outside, the book can be seen as a story about a teenager who can not seem to do the right thing, but once you read it; a new meaning can be uncovered. To discover the true and exciting meaning of the book and to understand where the title came from you need to read the book yourself! Read the Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger! I highly recommend it!
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Talmadge rated it:

05/08/08

recommends it for: everyone

“Catcher in the Rye”
By: J.D. Salinger
Review by Talmadge Irvin

J.D. Salinger did not grow up in the same time period as I am in now, but through his character Holden Caulfield I could really identify with the problems that frustrated him on a daily basis while he was in or outside of school. “Catcher in the Rye” is the story of Holden Caulfield telling of his past experiences while preparing to make his journey back home from the school he is being expelled from. Holden Caulfiel...more

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Meagan added it

05/15/08

When my teacher told me that we were going to be reading The Catcher in the Rye, I was kind of bummed. My freshman year I heard from a couple of people that it wasn’t that great of a book and that they dreaded reading it. So, I wasn’t that excited to read it. But, as I started to get into the book I realized that it was an amazing book and I was thinking “how could anybody think this wasn’t that good of a book?” It was great! J.D. Salinger had me turning page by page and made...more

When my teacher told me that we were going to be reading The Catcher in the Rye, I was kind of bummed. My freshman year I heard from a couple of people that it wasn’t that great of a book and that they dreaded reading it. So, I wasn’t that excited to read it. But, as I started to get into the book I realized that it was an amazing book and I was thinking “how could anybody think this wasn’t that good of a book?” It was great! J.D. Salinger had me turning page by page and made me feel like I was in Holden Caulfield’s shoes.
In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden has lots of ways of showing himself. He rebels himself from society by thinking that all adults are “phonies.” He says that he doesn’t want children to grow up because he doesn’t want children to be phonies like them. He tries to keep all the bad things away from children, for example erasing the profanity off the walls at various places. Holden’s doesn’t have any friends and can’t keep any friends. It’s because he always finds something wrong with each of them. I think it’s because it makes him feel better about himself. Holden only has a relationship with his sister, Phoebe. He feels he can only connect with her because she will listen to him and can understand. Also, when Holden was younger his brother, Allie, passed away and this caused some effect on Holden. Most of these effects let to his admission into a mental institution.
In The Catcher in the Rye, I like how Holden cursed in the book. I think it showed more about himself and showed more of how he didn’t care about things. I think that with him swearing, it made him feel like he was proving a point to himself or to others, like he was trying to prove by swearing that he really didn’t like that certain situation or that he was really mad. Holden was a sarcastic guy and was always trying to be the “class clown.” He was always joking around and couldn’t really be serious. He always got on peoples nerves and he knew it, but he didn’t care if he was or not. He always got on his roommate at Pencey’s nerves. He does things like put people in wrestling positions. “All the sudden for no good reason, really, except that I was sort of in the mood for horsing around I felt like jumping off the washbowl and getting old Stradlater in a half nelson. That’s a wrestling hold, in case you don’t know, where you get the other guy around the neck and chokes him to death, if you feel like it. So I did it. I landed on him like a goddam panther.” Even though people, like Stradlater, tell them to stop, Holden is stubborn and he doesn’t listen. Holden just likes the enjoyment of being “funny” and horsing around. I didn’t think The Catcher in the Rye was funny and I don’t think that it was supposed to be a funny book either. There ere some funny parts of the book, but I think that those parts were trying to get you into the book. The Catcher in the Rye is the type of book that tries to make you feel like you are in the narrator’s shoes, so you can feel his point of view. That way you will want to keep reading just like I did.
I absolutely loved this book and it’s one of my favorites. Some of the chapters were long and boring. For example, one of the chapters where Mr. Antolini was giving Holden advice about his future it seemed like the chapter was never going to end and that Mr. Antolini was just repeating himself. What I liked about the book was how interesting things would pop up in random parts of the book, like when Sunny the Prostitute came about, when Holden got his hotel room and he looked out the window and saw these strange people doing strange things, and when he was at Mr. Antolini’s. That’s just a few of the strange things that happened in the book that I liked and there are lots more.
Jerome David Salinger AKA J.D. Salinger was born on January 1, 1919 and grew up in Manhattan, N.Y., like Holden’s parents and sister Phoebe lived. Salinger’s first novel was The Catcher in the Rye which he wrote in 1951. It became a Book-of-the-Month club selection and it still sells 250,000 copies annually. It took Salinger 10 years to write The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger also wrote “Nine Stories” in 1953 and “Franny and Zooey” in 1961 which were series of short stories.

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Cody rated it:

(review of isbn 0316769487)

10/17/07

The Catcher and the Rye is a struggle between ending your teenage years and starting adulthood. Holden Caulfeild is struggling with just this problem. When the story first begins, he has just been kicked out of another school. Finding himself alone on a friday night Holden gets nervous becuase his roomate is on a date with a childhood friend of his. He can't help himself but wonder what his roomate and Jane are doing. Getting agitated by that and his dormatory roomate he decides to go to New...more The Catcher and the Rye is a struggle between ending your teenage years and starting adulthood. Holden Caulfeild is struggling with just this problem. When the story first begins, he has just been kicked out of another school. Finding himself alone on a friday night Holden gets nervous becuase his roomate is on a date with a childhood friend of his. He can't help himself but wonder what his roomate and Jane are doing. Getting agitated by that and his dormatory roomate he decides to go to New York Manhatten for the weekend. Once on the train he meets a lady, a mother of a classmate. He despises the student, but he can't help himself but to lie to her. Once off the train he goes to a motel and watches people from his widow. Next, he calls a lady that is said to be "easy". He tries to meet up with her that night, but she refuses and asks if he'd like to meet tomorrow. He doesn't want to so he hangs up. Now bored he decides to go down the the motels bar to get a drink, but the waiter finds out that he's not of age and doesn't serve him anything. While sitting at the bar he meets three ladies in their thirties. He flirts with them for awhile, then they make fun of his age and leave him. Stuck with all of the tabs. Once he leaves he starts to think about Jane and about their summer together. So, he decides to leave and take a cab to a jazz club where he runs into his older brothers ex girlfriend. She invites him to sit with her and her date, but he refuses by making up the excuse of having to meet someone and leaves to walk back to his motel. Once back to the motel he gets an offer of a hooker from the elevator attendent. He agrees and awhile later a girl named Sunny apears at his door. He lets her in but he doesn't want to sleep with her, so he pays her and before she leaves she demands five more dollars. Holden says no and the elavator attendent punches him and takes five dollars from his wallet. The next morning he decides to call up a past girlfriend, Sally. They decide to meet up for a broadway showing. While waiting for the date, Holden goofs off and tries to call Jane but her mother answers so he hangs up. When he does meet up with Sally he gets annoyed becuase she keeps talking to another boy at the show. He offers to take her the ice rink, but they both suck and decide to get a table. In a deep converstion about school Holden asks Sally to run away with him, but she Refuses and he replies iwth "pain in the ass". Not accepting his apology, she leaves. Later that night, drunk, Holden calls Sally and just rambles about meaningless things. Later, he sneaks into his apartment and sees his sister. He has to admit that he's been kicked out of school, and she's angry. He tells her that he wants to be "the catcher and the rye" a person who catches children as they fall off of clifs, and pheobe tell him that he's crazy and he's confused the poem. Once leaving he calls a former english teacher. He goes to his apartment, and his teacher tries to talk to him about his future, but HOlden is sleepy and falls asleep on the couch. He awakes to the teacher stroking his head, thinking the teacher is homosexual he leaves quickly and goes and sleeps on a bench. He decides he's not going back home and sends a note to Pheobe telling her so and to meethim for lunch, she comes and wants to leave with him. But, he says no and she gets upset, and follows him around. The book ends with him watching her on the ride, and telling us that he's not going to go any further withthe story.

This book was an interesting mixtures of emotions, i enjoyed it more than I thought i would in the begining. I think I might look into more books by this authur in the future....less

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Jason rated it:

(review of isbn 0316769487)

01/05/08

The Catcher in the Rye

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