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Holden Caulfield has been described as an ancient child of sixteen. It would seem I am an ancient child of sixty five. I just finished this book today and while reading it dawned on me that I am Holden Caulfied. Holden's tumultuous three day epiphany in New York has taken me a wee bit longer. It has only been a short time since I have adopted the true perspective of an adult. I am an old child of naivete, whimsey, impulse and frozen with old losses. Just as Holden's acceptance of adulthood is fi
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Hmm. I'm not really sure what the fuss about this book is - presumably it's on the banned list because of the prostitute incident and the other sexual references. I can't say I really liked Holden, though, but I will admit, he did at least have a good side, like with the nuns, or the little girl at the skating rink, or with his little sister. However, I really don't see why it's so frequently included on "best books of the xxx" lists. Perhaps its just not my kind of book.
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Another classic that I am supposed to love that I just didn't. I think I'm not a fan of first person, stream of consciousness novels, especially by moody, self-absorbed teenagers. Maybe I would have identified more if I had read it back in high school. I really didn't care for all the repetitive phrases ("and all", "I really didn't" and "goddamn" everything) and the constant mood changes, and nothing ever really happened.
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Okay, so I read this book thinking it would be great. I read it thinking that it was going to "change my life" like it supposedly had for so many others. You want to know all I learned from this book? Holden is a whiny bastard who complains about everything, is as fake as they come and pretends to be an intellectual. He's a typical teenager. Honestly, go talk to a typical teenager for a day and you'll get everything you would've got out of the book. I don't see why people claim this is a classic
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2/13/17 Picked his up from the library as "blind date with a book" based on the key descriptors: classic novel, adolescence, New York, frequently banned. I was somewhat pleasantly surprised to find it inside the wrapper because this is on my to be read list, but it never makes it to the top. This may be the incentive I needed to begin it--I just hope I can finish it because I didn't care for Franny and Zooey and one of my book-loving friends says that is the better of these two books. Still, thi
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Oct 27, 2008
Crystal
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Robin
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