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The Catcher in the Rye

J.D. Salinger

3.81 · Rating details · 3,094,915 ratings · 68,034 reviews

It's Christmas time and Holden Caulfield has just been expelled from yet another school. Fleeing the crooks at Pencey Prep, he pinballs around New York City seeking solace in fleeting encounters - shooting the bull with strangers in dive hotels, wandering alone round Central Park, getting beaten up by pimps and cut down by erstwhile girlfriends. The city is beautiful and t ...more

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Paperback, First Back Bay Paperback Edition (US/CAN), 277 pages

Published January 30th 2001 by Back Bay Books (first published July 16th 1951)

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· 3,094,915 ratings · 68,034 reviews

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Jul 01, 2011 mark monday rated it it was amazing

Shelves: time-to-come-of-age, mind-the-gap, alpha-team, first-loves, super-private-journal, unicorn, these-fragile-lives

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.

there is one ...more

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Mar 18, 2010 Stephen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, literature, children-behaving-badly, classics-americas, 1930-1953

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 would change a ...more

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Mar 25, 2008 Kathy rated it it was ok

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 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. ...more

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Jul 12, 2009 Matt rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone but phonies and athletic bastards

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 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 going on. It’s like they are trying to give you the time in the back of a cab when you don’t feel like getting the time at all. It’s damn depressing, I swear to God it is. If you want to know the truth, you probably couldn’t even talk to a phony writer on the phone. You would just end up talking to his butler or some snobbish person like that and asking if they would give the writer your message. He probably wouldn’t even do it. The thing with guys like that is that they will never give writers your messages. That’s something that annoys the hell out of me.

Turns out this is still a damn good book. Salinger kid is a great writer. He really is. Maybe I’m still just an angst-ridden sonuvabitch, but this part kills me:

“All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddam horse, but I didn’t say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them.”p.211

I’ll bet everyone is going to think that I’m just horsin’ around or trying to be all sexy talking like this. The reason for this corny review is because a thousand other people have already written reviews for this book and I’ll bet that they have already said everything that I want to say. It’s pretty depressing. It really is. That’s about all that I’m going to talk about. Now I just hope that no one writes “fuck you” on this review. That’s the thing with some people, they are always sneaking up and writing “fuck you” on your book reviews when you are not looking. They really are.

...more

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Dec 26, 2007 Shana rated it did not like 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. At ...more

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Aug 04, 2007 Cheyenne rated it did not like it

Edit: stop liking and commenting on this review. It's 2021. And the book is still shit.

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 trai ...more

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Jul 31, 2007 Richard rated it did not like it · review of another edition

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 who lucked into perform ...more

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Sep 24, 2007 Madeline rated it did not like it

Shelves: the-list, kids-and-young-adult, ugh

In my hand I hold $5.
I will give it to anyone who can explain the plot of this book (or why there is no plot) and make me understand why the hell people think it's so amazing. ...more

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Oct 23, 2020 Kat rated it it was ok

so sorry, guess im a phony

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May 26, 2007 J.G. Keely rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, america, reviewed, novel

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 reality. 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 depressive.

I've taken the subway and had prolonged conversations on the street with prostitutes (n 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 reality. 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 depressive.

I've taken the subway and had prolonged conversations on the street with prostitutes (not concerning business matters), and I can attest that Salinger's depiction is often accurate to what it feels like to go through an average, unremarkable day. However, reading about an average day is no more interesting than living one.

Beyond that, Salinger doesn't have the imagination to paint people as strangely as they really are. Chekhov's 'normal' little people seem more real and alive than Salinger's because Chekhov injects a little oddness, a little madness into each one. Real people are almost never quite as boring as modernist depictions, because everyone has at least some ability to surprise you.

Salinger's world is desaturated. Emotions and moments seep into one another, indistinct as the memories of a drunken party. Little importance is granted to events or thoughts, but simply pass by, each duly tallied by an author in the role of court reporter.

What is interesting about this book is not that it is realistically bland, but that it is artificially bland. Yet, as ridiculous a concept as that is, it still takes itself entirely in earnest, never acknowledging the humor of its own blase hyperbole.

This allows the book to draw legions of fans from all of the ridiculously dull people who take themselves as seriously as Holden takes himself. They read it not as a parody of bland egotism but a celebration, poised to inspire all the bland egotists who have resulted from the New Egalitarianism in Art, Poetry, Music, and Academia.

Those same folks who treat rationality and intellectual fervor like a fashion to be followed, imagining that the only thing required to be brilliant is to mimic the appearance and mannerisms of the brilliant; as if black berets were the cause of poetic inspiration and not merely a symptom.

One benefit of this is that one can generally sniff out pompous faux intellectuals by the sign that they hold up Holden as a sort of messianic figure. Anyone who marks out Holden as a role-model is either a deluded teen with an inflated sense of entitlement, or is trying to relive the days when they were.

But what is more interesting is that those who idolize Holden tend to be those who most misunderstand him. Upon close inspection, he's not depressive, not consumed with ennui or an existential crisis, he's actually suffering from 'Shell Shock'--now known as 'Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder'.

The way he thinks about his brother's and classmate's deaths--going over the details again and again in his mind, but with no emotional connection--it's not symptomatic of depression, but of psychological trauma. He is stuck in a cycle, unable to process events, going over them again and again, but never able to return to normalcy.

It takes a certain kind of self-centered prick to look at someone's inability to cope with the reality of death and think "Hey, that's just like my mild depression over how my parents won't buy me a newer ipod!" It's not an unusual stance in American literature--there's an arrogant detachment in American thought which has become less and less pertinent as the world grows and changes. As recently as The Road we have American authors comparing a difficult father-son relationship to the pain and turmoil of an African civil war survivor--and winning awards for displaying their insensitive arrogance.

Perhaps it's time we woke up and realized that the well-fed despondence of the white man should not be equated with a lifetime of death, starvation, war, and traumas both physical and emotional. And as for Salinger--a real sufferer of Post-Traumatic Stress who was one of the first soldiers to see a concentration camp, who described how you can never forget the smell of burning flesh--I can only imagine how he felt when people read his story of a man, crippled by the thought of death, and thought to themselves "Yes, that's just what it's like to be a trustafarian with uncool parents". No wonder he became a recluse and stopped publishing. ...more

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Oct 01, 2010 Roohdaar rated it did not like it

Shelves: hate, bad-writing, half-wit-characters

Well, this was a pain to get through.

First of all, this is a shitty way to start a novel no matter how you want to introduce your main character.

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.

description

That is easily one of the saddest, most p ...more

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Aug 16, 2008 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it it was amazing

Shelves: novels, classics, 20th-century, 1001-books, fiction, united-states

(Book 529 from 1001 books) - The Catcher In The Rye, J.D. Salinger

The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger.

Holden Caulfield, a teenager from New York City, is living in an unspecified institution in southern California near Hollywood in 1951.

Story of Holden Caulfield with his idiosyncrasies, penetrating insight, confusion, sensitivity and negativism.

The hero-narrator of "The Catcher in the Rye" is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield.

Through ...more

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Oct 01, 2008 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, classics, fiction, 20th-century, united-states, literature

The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger.

A classic novel originally published for adults, it has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes of teenage angst and alienation. It has been translated into almost all of the world's major languages.

The novel's protagonist Holden Caulfield has become an icon for teenage rebellion. The novel also deals with complex issues of innocence, identity, belonging, loss, and connection.

The b ...more

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May 08, 2008 Big Red rated it it was amazing

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 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.
...more

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Jul 03, 2008 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, fiction, classics, 20th-century, 1001-books, childrens-young-readers

(Book 529 from 1001 Books) - The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

The Catcher in the Rye is a story by J. D. Salinger, first published in serial form in 1945-6 and as a novel in 1951. Story of Holden Caulfield with his idiosyncrasies, penetrating insight, confusion, sensitivity and negativism.

The hero-narrator of "The Catcher in the Rye" is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leave (Book 529 from 1001 Books) - The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

The Catcher in the Rye is a story by J. D. Salinger, first published in serial form in 1945-6 and as a novel in 1951. Story of Holden Caulfield with his idiosyncrasies, penetrating insight, confusion, sensitivity and negativism.

The hero-narrator of "The Catcher in the Rye" is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days.

The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it.

There are many voices in this novel: children's voices, adult voices, underground voices -- but Holden's voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure.

However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.

عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران : «ناطور دشت»؛ «ناتور دشت»؛ نویسنده: جروم دیوید (جی.د.) سالینجر؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: ماه آگوست سال 1982میلادی، بار دوم سال 2001میلادی و بار سوم ماه ژوئن سال 2005میلادی

عنوان: ناطور دشت؛ نویسنده: جروم دیوید (جی.د.) سالینجر؛ مترجم: احمد کریمی؛ تهران، فرانکلین، 1345؛ در 354ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، اشرفی، 1371؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، ققنوس، 1381؛ در 326ص؛ شابک 9643112543؛ چاپ چهارم 1385؛ چاپ پنجم تهران، علمی، فرهنگی، 1386؛ در 326ص؛ شابک 9789643112547؛ چاپ ششم 1387؛ چاپ هفتم 1388، هشتم 1389؛ سال 1393 ؛ چاپ دیگر: 1393؛ در 256ص؛ شابک 9786001215930؛ موضوع نوجوانان فراری - داستانهای نویسندگان امریکایی - سده 20م

عنوان: ناتور دشت؛ مترجم: محمد نجفی؛ تهران، نیلا، 1378، در 296ص؛ چاپ چهارم 1381؛ چاپ پنجم 1384 در 207ص؛ هفتم 1388؛ هشتم 1389؛ چاپ نهم 1393؛

داستان جوانی جسور و جستجوگر، در پی مفهوم زندگی، «هولدن کالفیلد» نوجوانی هفده ساله، که در آغاز رمان، در یک مرکز درمانی بستری است، و ظاهراً قصد دارد آن‌چه که پیش از رسیدن به مرکز درمانی را از سر گذرانده، برای کسی بازگو کند، همین ‌کار را هم می‌کند؛ رمان بر همین پایه شکل می‌گیرد؛ در زمان رخداد ماجراهای داستان، «هولدن» یک پسر بچه ی شانزده‌ ساله‌ است، که در مدرسه ی شبانه‌ روزی «پنسی» درس می‌خواند، و در آستانه ی کریسمس، به علت ضعف تحصیلی از دبیرستان اخراج میشود، و باید به خانه‌ شان در «نیویورک» برگردد.؛ ماجراهای داستان طی سه روز که «هولدن» از مدرسه برای رفتن به خانه خارج می‌شود، رخ می‌دهند؛ او می‌خواهد: تا نامه ی مدیر، مبنی بر اخراجش، به دست پدر و مادرش برسد، و آب‌ها از آسیاب بیفتد، به خانه ی خویش پا نگذارد، به همین ‌خاطر از زمانی که از مدرسه خارج ‌میشود، دو روز را به سرگردانی سپری می‌کند؛ این دو روز نمادی است از سفر «هولدن»، از کودکی به دنیای نوجوانی؛ رمان در سال 1951میلادی منتشر شده، برگردان فارسی رمان یعنی همین کتاب، با عنوان: «ناطور دشت» با ترجمه ی جناب «احمد کریمی» در دهه ی پنجاه هجری خورشیدی منتشر گردیده است؛ سپس برگردان دیگری با عنوان «ناتور دشت» با ترجمه جناب «محمد نجفی» در دهه هفتاد هجری خورشیدی نیز منتشر شده است؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 03/06/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 09/05/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی ...more

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Sep 27, 2007 Paul Bryant rated it did not like it

Shelves: novels

A spell in the army would do that young man a power of good! Or maybe a couple of bags of heroin. Anything to stop that whining voice....

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Jul 19, 2008 Dan rated it did not like it

Shelves: literature-american

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. ...more

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Nov 17, 2011 Henry Avila rated it really liked it

Holden Caulfield is a mixed- up cynical teenager, getting kicked out of another prestigious school, Pencey Prep, in Pennsylvania, the irony is that this obviously intelligent, privileged, 16 year- old, is somehow flunking out, why? He doesn't care about anything, especially education, bored and feeling neglected by his wealthy, New York City family . At least Caulfield passed English class, he's always reading, his big problem, he's so unmotivated, nothing seems important to this kid (set in 194 Holden Caulfield is a mixed- up cynical teenager, getting kicked out of another prestigious school, Pencey Prep, in Pennsylvania, the irony is that this obviously intelligent, privileged, 16 year- old, is somehow flunking out, why? He doesn't care about anything, especially education, bored and feeling neglected by his wealthy, New York City family . At least Caulfield passed English class, he's always reading, his big problem, he's so unmotivated, nothing seems important to this kid (set in 1949). Holden has no real friends in school, or liking anyone there, and the sentiment is very mutual, everything is "phony", his favorite word, which he speaks and thinks constantly. When Holden's younger brother Allie, died three years ago, it marked him forever, afterwards, the boy was changed and stops believing . Getting into a fight with a much stronger opponent, his roommate Stradlater, and losing naturally no surprise to Holden, ( punishment he craved) just before sneaking out of Pencey, an institution he hates, with a fervent passion. Taking the train to New York City, his hometown, but Holden doesn't go back to his uncaring family, his father, a well- to- do lawyer, too busy for Holden, nervous mother, she wants quiet, please, older brother D.B. a Hollywood writer, younger sister Phoebe, his only confidant, and the person he loves. Checking into the Edmont Hotel in the "Big Apple", a rather shabby, rundown place, (I wouldn't recommend staying there) and then the elevator operator the sleazy Maurice , gets him a prostitute, Sunny, she's Holden's age and he kind of feels sorry for her. Gives the lady of the night, five dollars just for talking, sends her away, good deeds are always rewarded, Maurice, comes back with Sunny for more money, a dispute arises, but they leave with an extra five, and a sock in the stomach of the poorer, but wiser Holden. Chain smoking with gusto and delight, drinking in bars, (dives) like a man, where people aren't too concerned about a customers age just the color of his dough, going to a Broadway play with a very accommodating girlfriend, attending the loathsome movies and seeing all those phonies, the actors, fighting with unsmiling cab drivers , the kid is having a good time, living like a grown-up, as long as the cash lasts. But what will he do, runaway or go back and face the music...his remote parents? The bible for disgruntled teenagers, and a must read for every new generation.......P.S. the title comes from a Robert Burns poem ...more

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Feb 02, 2017 Elle (ellexamines) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: z-2016faves, 5-star, catharsis-dot-mp3, literary-fiction, favorite-characters, z-2016read, elle-recs-list, mental-illness-disability, classwork

Holden Caulfield is a character many, many people hate. And trust me, I get it. He's a posturing hypocrite. He's a dick. I wanted to hit him in the face for at least a hundred pages. We know this. But he's a character that, for some strange reason, resonates with thousands of people.

Why?

Well, simply put, it's because he's written like this on purpose. But I think that doesn't quite get to the heart of it. Holden is a fifteen-year-old kid on the verge of an emotional breakdown. He's an asshole. ...more

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Jun 19, 2007 Melanie rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics

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, 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. ...more

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Sep 29, 2015 Lyn rated it really liked it

What can I say?

that hasn’t already been said?

As I write this review, there are almost 2 million ratings on Goodreads and over 36,000 reviews. My friend mark monday’s review is better than many original works.

What can I say?

I wish now that I read this sooner. I’d like to know what my perspective would be from a younger self. I did not love this book. Holden got on my nerves, and I was more than half way through before I thought I’d like it at all. I was getting apprehensive, was I going to be one ...more

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Feb 05, 2008 Licia rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: spoiled, white, rich kids who feel misunderstood

Recommended to Licia by: 8th graade english teacher

I know there are people who thought this book changed their lives and helped them find their unique way in the world, but coming from a non-white, non-middleclass background, as a kid, I really resented having to read about this spoiled, screwed up, white, rich kid who kept getting chance after chance and just kept blowing it because he was so self-absorbed and self-pitying. I felt at the time there was no redeeming value in it for me. I was born on the outside trying my best to get in. I felt n ...more

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Nov 05, 2020 Lisa of Troy rated it liked it

It was one of the best books and one of the worst books that I have ever read.

Here is the link to my more in-depth review:
https://youtu.be/8ZVbr7odygM

On the one hand, we have a character, Holden, who is not incredibly likeable. On the other hand, the book is really about some incredibly deep topics without being preachy at all. There is quite a bit of mild swearing so if that is something that you are sensitive about, this book is not for you.

Often touted as a coming of age book, I beg to dif ...more

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Jan 22, 2021 andrea (taylor’s version) rated it did not like it

Shelves: books-that-i-own, a-group-of-characters-pissed-me-off, classics, what-a-bad-ending, made-me-cringe-sometimes, bad-beginning, adult, books-i-read-for-school, douchebag-character, disappointed

Please take this review as an account from a fourteen year old. Maybe consider that before you make some extremely inappropriate judgments about me.

TW: sexism, homophobia, gaslighting, inaccurate/inappropriate interpretations of depression, violence and abuse

I don't think I've ever despised a book more than this one. I cannot positively find a good thing to say about it whatsoever. Before anyone decides to come at me for hating this book and say, "Andrea, you're so immature and uneducated" or "A ...more

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Jun 25, 2014 Lisa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, favorites

Holden is the teenage mind in all its confusion, rebellion and irrationality, and in all its undefined hope for individual heroism.

If you work with teenagers, you eventually always end up asking yourself:

"WHY does s/he do that? It's not even helpful, realistic, smart, beneficial ..."

The answer is that the teenager is in a state of transition, moving from the relatively defined environment of childhood to the jungle of the adult world, and completely without tools to handle that journey. Using Holden is the teenage mind in all its confusion, rebellion and irrationality, and in all its undefined hope for individual heroism.

If you work with teenagers, you eventually always end up asking yourself:

"WHY does s/he do that? It's not even helpful, realistic, smart, beneficial ..."

The answer is that the teenager is in a state of transition, moving from the relatively defined environment of childhood to the jungle of the adult world, and completely without tools to handle that journey. Using swearwords, trying different ways to tune out reality, not doing what one is supposed to do, those are all different methods of practicing the BIG SCARE. Growing up. Facing responsibility. Soon, soon, soon ... the teenager will have to earn money, make decisions, take care of others. And the weight is heavy on the young shoulders. Roaming the streets relaxes nerves. But still. There is an element of idealism in most teenagers' hearts. They don't usually want to fall into the traps of conventional evil. They want to change the world, make a difference. They are just struggling to come up with ideas how to do that, as their experience is limited. And they can't put their ideas into a wider context either. So being a catcher in the rye may make sense. It isn't necessarily the teenager's fault if nobody turns up where they wait to save lives, right? Teenage intentions are more often than not good. The results vary though.

And their verbal skills are developing in conjunction with their minds as well:

"Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry."

Teenage minds are indeed more poetry than prose: fractured, fragmented, emotional, in the moment, beautiful and fleeting. Luckily, some of them remember later and share, - for us teachers to enjoy when we think it is impossible to understand the monsters that all of a sudden show up at the end of Grade 7, replacing lovely and enthusiastic children over night!

I hope some of my students use the long summer to enter the beautiful arrangement Holden suggests and read this classic. Hope's that thing with feathers... ...more

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Jan 05, 2010 David rated it it was amazing

Shelves: pants-crapping-awesome

Okay. So it's like this. My not-just-GR-friend-but-very-real-friend brian called and told me that J.D. Salinger had died maybe about a half hour ago (as I begin this 'review'). This sounds immensely absurd, pathetically sentimental, and embarrassing to admit, but I'm glad I heard it from him and not from some animatronic talking head with chin implants and immobile hair on the nightly news or from an obnoxiously matter-of-fact internet blurb, commenting like a machine on how Holden Caulfield has Okay. So it's like this. My not-just-GR-friend-but-very-real-friend brian called and told me that J.D. Salinger had died maybe about a half hour ago (as I begin this 'review'). This sounds immensely absurd, pathetically sentimental, and embarrassing to admit, but I'm glad I heard it from him and not from some animatronic talking head with chin implants and immobile hair on the nightly news or from an obnoxiously matter-of-fact internet blurb, commenting like a machine on how Holden Caulfield has lately become less relevant to Generation Y or Z or AA or whatever stupid generation we're up to now.

At first when brian told me, I thought, 'Oh, well... He was old. He was (probably) batshit crazy anyway. It was his time to check out, I guess.' Really. What difference does it make? He's been dead to the world since the mid-1960s. Before I was even born. A strong case could be made that he truly died in spirit when he started stalking Elaine Joyce on the set of 1980s sitcom Mr. Merlin. And yet... I still clung to this (still technically living) legend as if he were some kind of talisman I could wear around my neck, a good luck charm to ward off phonies and all manner of soulless dreck who populate this despicable world, writing 'fuck' on grammar school walls (and metaphorical equivalents).

After returning for a few minutes to my soul-deadening job, which -- when you really get right down to it -- is just another way of killing time until I join Salinger in oblivion, I started getting all funny-feeling about it. At the risk of sounding like an adult contemporary power ballad written by Jim Steinman, with synthesized violins in the background, I began to feel as if my adolescence had finally come to an end. I guess it's about time. I'm thirty-eight years old, and yet I look at the people who are my age -- hell, who are even much younger than I am -- and who appear in all particulars to be adults, and I grow frightened/alarmed that they've graduated to the 'next level': they're mating and spawning and drawing up wills and completing their own tax returns and investing money and dealing (gracefully -- or with stoicism?) with the deaths of friends and relatives... and even some of them have died themselves of terrible diseases -- the kinds of diseases which are not content with merely claiming lives but which demand the optimal human suffering (the optimal dehumanization) before they cash in.

So of course. I love all of Salinger's writing, but his value in my life has far surpassed that of a 'mere' literary pastime. He has kept me company for many years when I felt left behind by the exigencies of time and the claims of 'maturity.' In my head, I still picture myself as a nineteen-year-old, and I'm shocked again and again when somehow every other moron on the planet seems to be under the ridiculous impression that I'm a thirty-eight-year-old man. With graying hair. And deepening crow's feet. What idiots!

I know all of this shit I'm saying is cliché, cliché, cliché. Lots and lots of people feel a special connection to Salinger's writing -- for just the reasons I described -- and lots and lots of people hate his writing because they find it grating and immature (Catcher in the Rye) or pretentious and ponderous (the Glass family stories). But I felt compelled to commemorate today in some way -- however trite and superfluous -- because I sense again and again (with the relatively recent deaths of some of my heroes, like Ingmar Bergman and Jacques Derrida, for instance) that I am entering a world that is no longer safeguarded by the great men and women of the elder generation; I am entering a world in which I am now the elder... with my own responsibilities and obligations. Yes, this still frightens me, but I'll always have Salinger's very particular and empathetic world to which to retreat when I have sacrificed too much of myself to a real world I'll never completely understand or feel at home in. ...more

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Feb 06, 2018 Nilufer Ozmekik rated it really liked it

“Catcher in the rye” is one of most debatable, argumentative, complex novels of the century.

Some people think it’s a masterpiece: great approach of corruption, phoniness of people’s characteristics which is reflected by the perspective of Holden Caulfield who feels and sees so much for his young age.

And some of the other reviewers think this book is incredibly boring and Holden is such a sassy, arrogant, pretentious little bastard who has no idea about real life, its challenges, struggles with ...more

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May 02, 2010 Nataliya rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: my-childhood-bookshelves, 2013-reads

"Oh, I don’t know. That digression business got on my nerves. I don’t know. The trouble with me is, I like it when somebody digresses. It’s more interesting and all.”

Yes, this review eventually will be about the book. My reviews always are. I'm boring this way. I envy the ability of my friends to digress in their review space and tell me a story which in some way was inspired by something in the book they just read, or its blurb, or - god forbid now, in the land of GR censorship of anything that does not look like a book report - author behavior, the new scary censorship-causing phrase out there, together with the now-used 'OFF TOPIC' excuse.

Because - oh the horror! - they dare to focus on the readers' opinion rather than the coveted by conglomerates endorsements of THE PRODUCT. Because for some of us literature does not equal product. Because for some of us, literature is what is designed to make us think and speak up, and not mindlessly consume (consumer instead of reader - that's making me shudder).

But first I WILL digress (and it seems I already have). And Holden Caulfield, the conflicted rebel with all the makings of a phony of the kind he detests, would probably approve. And if Holden approves, who the hell cares if Goodreads or Amazon do?

“It’s this course where each boy in class has to get up in class and make a speech. You know. Spontaneous and all. And if the boy digresses at all, you’re supposed to yell ‘Digression!’ at him as fast as you can. It just about drove me crazy. I got an F in it.”
“Why?”
“Oh, I don’t know. That digression business got on my nerves. I don’t know. The trouble with me is, I like it when somebody digresses. It’s more interesting and all.”

..............

............

You can't really love The Catcher in the Rye if you are feeling happy and content. At least I can't. When I'm happy, all I see is a moody overly judgmental privileged teenager looking for reasons to bitch about the world and being immature and a phony. I have to feel some discontent to appreciate the hiding behind that facade helpless anger, pain, loss and a rebellious streak. Holden is - or at least sometimes unsuccessfully trying to be - a rebel. A troublemaker. A square peg in a round hole. (Yes, I am very aware I'm quoting the Apple commercial. So sue me. Maybe it's off-topic or something. You decide.)

And right now I am not happy and content seeing the site I used to love heading down the road that is perilous at best. The road that clearly shows preference towards consumers over readers. The consumerism mantra of buy-buy-buy is taking precedence over think-disagree-discuss-passionately argue-watch the truth being born. Holden Caulfield would not approve of such change in direction. And neither do I or so many people I have come to respect, people whose opinions help me discover the works of literature that I love.

Holden Caulfield's views and his expression of them were, admittedly, often juvenile, poorly thought-through and frequently just as phony as those of people he reviles. He was quick to jump to judgment, ignoring those who really cared for him. He was prejudiced, snobbish and arrogant, and a habitual liar, too. How often do the readers want to reach into the book and shake some sense into this boy spiraling down into desperation and a breakdown?

And yet there is something about the unhappy rebellious teenager that still resonates with us despite the obvious flaws. It is his anger itself, the rage against the world that is fake and all about appearances, about the power imbalance, about the smugness the powerful of this world carry with them. His emotions are so raw and so sincere that I may disagree with some of them but I sure as hell can't ignore them.

As we probably all know too well, The Catcher in the Rye has been one of the most challenged books of the 20th century, riling up the emotions and protests of the wannabe censors who thought it was their sacred duty to shield and protect the public from the work of literature that dared to offend their tender sensibilities. These self-appointed sensors were (quite ironically, if you think about it) trying to be nothing less than the self-appointed Catchers in the Rye, protecting our childlike innocence from falling prey to The Catcher in the Rye. What they fail to grasp is that the point of the book itself is that such seemingly noble efforts are useless, worthless, and quite phony in their presumptuousness of knowing what's best; that these efforts are a slippery slope that is futile and dangerous.

Just as it is equally presumptuous and patronizing and dangerous for any power to tell book readers there is a proper way to express their opinions, that they need to stay ON TOPIC (or else there will be a delete-button action equal to the shriek of 'Digression!' gleefully coming from Holden's classmates).

Playing self-appointed Catcher in the Rye to the delicate sensibilities of certain bookselling sites, entitled writers or a bunch of offended fans, shifting the focus from discussing literature to reviewing product and collecting data - all this is just as misguided as Holden's futile efforts of saving children from growing up.

You see, this is what I love about Salinger's so often contested work - its ability to stir thoughts and opinions that go beyond the plot and the book report and make you think, and maybe -just maybe - be a touch rebellious, too. This is dangerous, in the best meaning of this word, the meaning that makes all the self-appointed censors uneasy. These censors would rather have everyone toe the line and do what's expected and never have to face anything that even remotely upsets delicate sensibilities.

But Holden Caulfield goes on being subversive. And occasionally being off topic - and that's perfectly fine by me.

"Oh, I don’t know. That digression business got on my nerves. I don’t know. The trouble with me is, I like it when somebody digresses. It’s more interesting and all.”

.........

........... ...more

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Sep 19, 2020 Mrinmayi rated it it was ok

Shelves: dumb-male-mate, plot-what-is-that, regretting-you, special-snowflake-syndrome, stupid-is-my-middle-name, give-my-money-back, ok-tier, what-did-i-just-read, boring, wanna-smack-this-dude

*2.5 stars(This is overall rating .I will rate the book in parts at the end of this review )

Let me start by saying that I TOTALLY understand why people either HATE or LOVE this book
I really thought at the beginning of the book that I was gonna love this book
Which I did...to a certain extent😅

The one thing I am concerned about is : I have started talking in "Holden"!!!!
i.e the MC uses some phrases repetitively like "Or something" "and all" "horsing around" "phonies" AND MY FAV "ANYWAYS"
I used the ...more

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Jun 18, 2008 Chris rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Recommended to Chris by: some crumby teacher

**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 time to lear **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 time to learn how to italicize things on GoodReads, which would probably be worthwhile, but my computer skills could easily be outshone by a resuscitated troglodyte fresh from an ice-block. Added to that, I don’t know how long I could go on trying to poorly mimic the book without wanting to puke, I mean, not only is it a crumby thing to do to, but it’s also phony as hell.

So what do I think about the madman exploits of old Holden Caufield, perhaps one of the most acclaimed protagonists in all of American literature? No terribly much, as a matter of fact: each time I’ve read this book I wanted to kill myself. Holden’s always saying things like that, I mean, if you were to wear one blue sock and one red sock, and maybe slowly skin your shrivelfig under the comforting cotton of a green sock, he’d say something like, “God how I hate how that guy messes around with his socks, it makes me want to kill myself.” In that case, you’d better hope you’re at least in possession of a decent valise, lest that bastard Caulfield spread some more wrath upon you for your clearly inferior luggage. That guy, he really cracks me up.

I never really understood why this book is so universally adored; sure, Holden is a slacker, the type of clown that every distraught kid envisions themselves to be, some gem in the rough with all the talent, but lacking the ambition to make a notable mark on the world which holds them back. But you grow up, if only to acknowledge you have no talents and still have no ambition, and instead of grabbing for that golden ring, you waste your time writing shitty reviews on shitty books here on goodreads on a ball-dampeningly warm Sunday afternoon. Come to think of it, that’s probably why so many appreciate this bumbling tale; like Holden, they probably equate themselves to that misshapen hunk of precious metal hidden beneath a untilled mound of Nebraskan soil, laying in wait for someone to unearth their sparkling brilliance for all the world to admire. Of course, when you realize Tucker Max probably felt the same way you immediately bathe in bromine and shave what remains of your flesh completely bald to scour the scourge as thoroughly as humanly possible. Perhaps it may be slightly more promising to delude yourself than resigning your life to the contemplation of just how lame you actually are.

So here’s a quick glimpse of what’s inspired so many lifelong laughingstocks. Here’s Holden fruitlessly swimming against the current, a complete nincompoop (let’s remember he’s Irish) who gets kicked out of school for being a moron and talks hard yet winds up getting the shit mercilessly beaten out of him by a crumby snob named Stradlater (a book about Studly Strad would have been far better) and a pimp named Maurice. Holden also feels the need to denounce everyone as a phony, though I find myself at a loss to imagine anything phonier than a wimpy, big-mouthed mick mollycoddled by daddy’s fat bankroll while attending prep school along with his stunning array of hand-crafted, Italian leather luggage. Let’s not gloss over the fact that Holden is probably impotent, as evidenced by his inability to lay the wood to Sally, Jane, or even a prostitute, perhaps his crowning disgrace. Either that or he’s queer, seeing as he duped poor Antolini by presenting his former mentor with the ultimate fantasy of a drunken, sexually-inexperienced youth with ‘no place to go’ and then, afraid that further action might expose his impotence, he felt the need to flee into the night, acting all startled about what just transpired. Let’s face it, Holden himself claims that similar ‘perverty’ stuff happened to him a lot as a kid, and then feigns shock when Antolini comes in to take a juicy bite of the bare bottom he so masterfully baited. All this weirdness coming from an awkward geek with a fondness for children ought to be enough to sway any who remain unconvinced thus far. You’re STILL not seeing the light?!? Seriously? Ok, last clue Caulfield is a deviant: the kid aspires to be a “catcher”. And this ‘catcher’ fantasy involves children. If you need further explanation I’ll be required to rent a jackhammer to pound the obvious into your skull.

This will hopefully be the last time that I read “The Catcher in the Rye”, as I’ve given it too many chances and always walked away completely disappointed. I will give Salinger's opus two stars, however, simply for the entertainment of laughing at it.
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About J.D. Salinger

J.D. Salinger

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Jerome David Salinger was an American author, best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his reclusive nature. His last original published work was in 1965; he gave his last interview in 1980. Raised in Manhattan, Salinger began writing short stories while in secondary school, and published several stories in the early 1940s before serving in World War II. In 1948 he publishe Jerome David Salinger was an American author, best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his reclusive nature. His last original published work was in 1965; he gave his last interview in 1980. Raised in Manhattan, Salinger began writing short stories while in secondary school, and published several stories in the early 1940s before serving in World War II. In 1948 he published the critically acclaimed story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" in The New Yorker magazine, which became home to much of his subsequent work. In 1951 Salinger released his novel The Catcher in the Rye, an immediate popular success. His depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence in the protagonist Holden Caulfield was influential, especially among adolescent readers. The novel remains widely read and controversial, selling around 250,000 copies a year.

The success of The Catcher in the Rye led to public attention and scrutiny: Salinger became reclusive, publishing new work less frequently. He followed Catcher with a short story collection, Nine Stories (1953), a collection of a novella and a short story, Franny and Zooey (1961), and a collection of two novellas, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). His last published work, a novella entitled "Hapworth 16, 1924", appeared in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965.

Afterward, Salinger struggled with unwanted attention, including a legal battle in the 1980s with biographer Ian Hamilton, and the release in the late 1990s of memoirs written by two people close to him: Joyce Maynard, an ex-lover; and Margaret Salinger, his daughter. In 1996, a small publisher announced a deal with Salinger to publish "Hapworth 16, 1924" in book form, but amid the ensuing publicity, the release was indefinitely delayed. He made headlines around the globe in June 2009, after filing a lawsuit against another writer for copyright infringement resulting from that writer's use of one of Salinger's characters from The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger died of natural causes on January 27, 2010, at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire.
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Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour: An Introduction

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“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.” — 21425 likes

“Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.” — 4730 likes

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