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Mar 25, 2008

Kathy rated it:

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...

60 comments like (257 people liked it)

Dec 27, 2007

Shana rated it:

I read this book for the first time in the 8th grade. I had to get my mom to sign a permission slip because of the cursing. Before I began reading, I had so many expectations. Back then, I read Seventeen Magazine, and back then, Seventeen Magazine ran brainy features about books and poetry. There was one feature where they asked people what book changed their lives, and something like more than half said Catcher in the Rye. I think there might have been some celebrity comments in there, too More...

47 comments like (256 people liked it)

Dec 15, 2010

Bird Brian rated it:

Brian, aged 14 (B14): Holy Cow! It’s Holden Caulfield!! I can’t believe it’s really you! You’re like my hero!!

Holden Caulfield (HC): Who are you?

B14: (beaming) I’m Brian- I’m a huge fan!

HC: (turns away, bored) Yeah, well, fuck off… I’m not interested in talking with you.

B14: I get it! I get it! Everybody’s phony. That’s how I feel too! You should see people at the school I go to. It’s just exactly the way you describe.

HC: (with a More...

69 comments like (226 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Melanie rated it:

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, More...

8 comments like (68 people liked it)

May 31, 2011

Kelly rated it:

Ugh. Hate. Hate. Hate. Sorry, that's the first thing that comes to mind when I think of this book. I think the characters are ridiculous, and stupid, and frustrating. And not in a good way where I even care about the fact of if they get helped in the end or not. I want to see a book where Holden Caufield dies a painful, painful death. I just rolled my eyes both at the characters and at the prose. I just hated every second I was forced to talk about this book in class, and the female response to More...

36 comments like (63 people liked it)

Jul 04, 2011

mark rated it:

journal entry

today i am 15 years old. everything is all bullshit, as usual. i can't believe how fucked everything is around me. like i'm surrounded by zombies. i can't talk to any of my so-called friends, i can't talk to jamie, i can't talk to my parents. who would bother listening anyway. i cannot wait to leave orange county! this place makes me fucking sick. everyone is a hypocrite. everything is so goddamn bright and shiny and sunny and meaningless. FUCK, life is so full of crap. More...

50 comments like (80 people liked it)

Dec 10, 2011

Keely rated it:

Sometimes truth isn't just stranger than fiction, it's also more interesting and better plotted. Salinger helped to pioneer a genre where fiction was deliberately less remarkable than truth. His protagonist says little, does little, and thinks little, and yet Salinger doesn't string Holden up as a satire of deluded self-obsessives, he is rather the epic archetype of the boring, yet self-important.

I've taken the subway and had prolonged conversations on the street with prostitutes (no More...

19 comments like (30 people liked it)

May 08, 2008

Big rated it:

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 More...

6 comments like (82 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Cheyenne rated it:

If I could give this book a zero, I would. I absolutely hated it. Generally, I don't hate books, either. Usually it's a very strong dislike, and generally, I give them a second chance. But no, I will never be reading this book again.

In my opinion, Holden is the worst character in the English language. Salinger tried just too damn hard to make him 'universal', to the point where he becomes unrealistic. His train of thought is annoying and repetitive, and God, those catchphrases of his More...

17 comments like (116 people liked it)

Dec 28, 2009

Matt rated it:

I was worried as hell about reading this book again. The last time I read it was about a thousand years ago when I was just a kid. I was lousy with angst just like good old Holden back then. I really was. Now that I’m a crummy old guy I figured that I wouldn’t like it anymore. That’s the one thing about crummy old guys, they always hate books that kids like. Every time I reread a corny book that I really liked when I was a kid it makes me want to give the writer a buzz and ask what the hell is g More...

36 comments like (150 people liked it)

Apr 03, 2011

Stephen rated it:

5.0 stars. I LOVE IT when I go into a book with low expectations and it ends up knocking me on my ass. Admittedly, this is tougher to do with "classics" but it certainly happened in this case. I remember first reading this in school (like many of us) and not thinking it was anything special. However, having first read it almost 25 years ago, I knew I had to read it again before I could feel justified in actually reviewing it. Of course, I didn’t hold out much hope that my feelings wou More...

18 comments like (61 people liked it)

Jul 31, 2008

Chris rated it:

**Included on Time’s List of 100 Best Fiction of the 20th Century**

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is what I thought about “The Catcher In the Rye”, and my reasons for liking it or disliking it, and possibly even how I felt about the work each of the four times I’ve wasted my time reading it, and all that 'Mein Kampf' kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. Also, I’d probably have to take the More...

22 comments like (52 people liked it)

Mar 21, 2008

Jason rated it:

(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 s More...

3 comments like (46 people liked it)

May 29, 2011

Briana rated it:

I read this back in high school for my AP English class. Yeesh. Where do I begin? I was first attracted to it as a blessedly upfront dialogue with gritty language after abandoning David Copperfield in disgust. What do you know? He makes a funny little reference against the Charles Dickens monstrocity in the first few sentences. That almost gets Salinger one more star from me on principal.

However, I can't say that the interest stuck. This book is the epitome of depression-fi More...

7 comments like (18 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Richard rated it:

My theory as to this book's unusually polarizing nature: either you identify with Holden Caulfield or you don't.

Those who see themselves (either as they were or, God help them, as they are) in Holden see a misunderstood warrior-poet, fighting the good fight against a hypocritical and unfeeling world; they see in Salinger a genius because he gets it, and he gets them.

Those of us who don't relate to Holden see in him a self-absorbed whiner, and in Salinger, a one-trick-pony More...

17 comments like (73 people liked it)

Sep 18, 2010

indri rated it:

#2010-37#

Betapa mudahnya menjadi orang munafik. Kau tinggal menjadi berpura-pura atas satu hal dan hal lainnya. Yang perlu kau lakukan hanya membuat dirimu tampak hebat di antara yang lain. Berusaha bijak, walaupun kau tidak tahu apa-apa masalahnya.

Holden Caufield, yang selalu merasa sekelilingnya amat memuakkan. Mulai dari kepala sekolahnya, teman sekamar sok jago, tapi nggak bisa mikir, yang selalu menindasnya, bocah tetangga yang sebenarnya peduli namun mengesalkan. More...

30 comments like (14 people liked it)

Jan 05, 2008

Jason rated it:

Beautiful!

I had been somewhat hesitant to read "The Catcher in the Rye" after snoozing through Salinger's "Nine Stories," but I'm glad I finally came around. This book is a work of genius.

The book is a "coming of age" tale, but it certainly transcends the adolescent garbage that fills up most of the genre. The protagonist is 16 year old Holden Caulfield - depressed, aimless, and disillusioned. The entire story covers just one December weekend More...

1 comment like (32 people liked it)

Nov 29, 2007

Kristen rated it:

Kristen Parkes
Mrs. Ebarvia
World Literature Honors
11-19-07

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” And Thus begins the novel Catcher in The Rye by J.D. Salinger. The story takes place in mid 1950’ More...

3 comments like (12 people liked it)

Oct 06, 2007

Alex rated it:

In lieu of an actual review for this classic, I'll simply post from another message board where I discussed my current re-read of it, specifically the fact that so many people despise it for one reason or another:

Having finally given Catcher the time it deserved (I never finished it first time round) I can now honestly say that not appreciating it means you missed the point.

I can see how it could be unlikeable. Holden is an annoying narrator. He vascilates from one opini More...

6 comments like (21 people liked it)

Aug 15, 2010

Amanda rated it:

4 chapters in and so far I like it very much.

I wish I'd never heard David say he is Holden Caulfield, though. The dude self-proclaims that he's a 'good liar' and I can't handle knowing that about David...

6/4: I forgot what chapter I'm on. Which sucks because I wasn't using a bookmark. Ugh.

Anyway, I'm very much liking this book. It's the kind of book that blocks out my peripheral vision--the kind of book that, when I read it, I have absolutely no concept of More...

6 comments like (7 people liked it)

Mar 19, 2009

Dahlia rated it:

*Naga berlagak ala Holden*

Awalnya aku sempet kesal dengan buku yang begini-gini. Liat saja isinya, kalau di ucapkan tidak enak didengar penuh kata kasar dan sebagainya. Bikin puyeng. Kau tau maksudku? Kalau kalian tidak niat baca atau sebagainya lebih baik buku seperti ini dibakar atau dirobek-robek saja. Setengah-setengah bacanya hanya bakal bikin muntah. Aku serius ketika mengatakannya, ini buku bisa bikin stress. Aku kasih bocoran yah, si bajingan Holden, tokoh utama b More...

61 comments like (12 people liked it)

Oct 07, 2011

Simona rated it:

Non so spiegare quello che ho in mente. E anche se sapessi farlo, non sono sicuro che ne avrei voglia.

E la mia recensione potrebbe finire qui, con questa citazione. Perché effettivamente ho in testa moltissime cose da dire, ma non so se ho voglia di dirle né, in caso mi venga la voglia, come dirle.

Mmh, forse ce la faccio.
Ma in effetti, non che ci si debba sprecare molto. Tutto ciò che ho da scrivere è sul protagonista, perché è lui il 'tema centrale' di questo romanzo. Tu More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 17, 2007

Cody rated it:

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...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Şahan rated it:

I did not read this book once or twice. I read it whenever I could. Tens of times. Sometimes I had to hold my breath to finish it. It was a book to remind.
One may think that I was influenced by that average Mel Gibson movie Conspiracy Theory and "the assassin of Kennedy had a copy of Catcher in the Rye in his pocket" legend, but it was not so. However it is true that I found myself reading the book after I watched the film. But the reason I repeated reading it, is nothing to with More...

7 comments like (14 people liked it)

Mar 09, 2011

Dan rated it:

Reading this book was one of the biggest wastes of my time in the past twenty years. Holden Caulfield's problem is that he is the biggest phony he knows. Count the number of times he lies or behaves like someone he's not and then try to convince me otherwise. This is not a book about teenage alienation. It's about a smart-ass who can't deal with who he really is and spends almost 300 pages ranting about it - most likely to a doctor in a psych ward.

10 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jul 24, 2011

Islam rated it:

كلنا هولدن كولفيلد، أو زيف المجتمع، مجتمع الزيف
ـــــ
قبل أن أقرأ هذه الرواية تكوّن لدى عنها صورة أسطورية كعمل بيع منه 65 مليون نسخة منذ طبعته الأولى عام 1951 حتى الآن و تصنيفه كانجيل لجيل الغاضبين و الساخطين فى أمريكا..كما أن المنفى الإختيارى الذى اختاره المؤلف" جيروم ديفيد سالنجر" لينزوى فيه بعيدا عن المدينة فى بيئة ريفية حتى مماته هذا العام و امتناعه عن نشر أى مخطوطاته الذى سطرها فى عزلته ..و منعه تحويل روايته لعمل سينمائى طالما هو على قيد الحياة..- كل ذلك اضافة إلى أن نسخة More...

4 comments like (12 people liked it)

Sep 24, 2008

Sylvia rated it:

Seperti yang disebutkan si dukun Erie, bahwa buku ini banyak dibaca penjahat, ternyata memang buku ini pernah dibaca oleh Mark Chapman, pembunuh John Lennon. Bahkan si Chapman sempat meminta tanda tangan Lennon di pagi hari sebelum dia membunuhnya! Giling.. ni orang emang dah sakit jiwa, bukan karena buku ini. Buku ini juga masuk dalam Banned books list dari American Library Association.

Holden Caulfield, seorang remaja yang sedang mencari jati diri, di 'depak' lagi dari sekolahnya. S More...

32 comments like (7 people liked it)

Mar 25, 2008

Sofia rated it:

Title: The Catcher in the Rye Number of Pages: 277
Publisher: Little,Brown Company,United States and
Cost: $11.19
ISBN 0-316-76953-3

Book Review Final Draft
Phonies, Phonies, Phonies! If you are a person who hates everyone who thinks they are better than you, who hates the world and thinks their life is a tragedy, well this More...

8 comments like (6 people liked it)

Feb 22, 2010

Annalisa rated it:

I love this book. I really do.

Years after first reading it, I bought a copy and the book has been sitting on my shelf ever since. That red cover has occasionally caught my eye and I'd toy with the idea of revisiting Holden's story. But I've been afraid. What if Holden didn't stand up to the pedestal he occupies in memory? What if J.D. Salinger isn't as amazing of a writer as I once remembered? When he died, I knew it was time to justify that position on my favorite books shelf.
More...

1 comment like (17 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

mackenzie rated it:

This book has been on my to-read list forever because I actually never had to read it in high school, unlike the vast majority of people. I was excited to read it because it's considered a classic. And let's face it, banned books can be exciting.

Unfortunately, I did not find reading this book enjoyable at all. The writing style is rather annoying in my opinion and can seem rather rambling, though I realize this is a by-product of the stream-of-consciousness writing style. Through More...

5 comments like (16 people liked it)

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