From the Bookshelf of Should have read classics…

The Catcher in the Rye

J.D. Salinger

Start date: March 1, 2014

Finish date: March 31, 2014

Discussion: Group Book Discussions

Why we're reading this: This is the group read for March.
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What Members Thought

Jul 08, 2010 Michele rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction

I first read this book as a high school junior. Not quite 30 years ago. (!) What do I remember about this reading? I remember the class discussion. We talked about cliques and bullying and what it feels like to not belong. I’m not sure I was aware of the controversies surrounding this novel until sometime later. Some readers find teenage Holden’s bad attitude, his language, and his exploits (which include drinking and a visit with a prostitute) troubling and even despicable.

I am now the parent I first read this book as a high school junior. Not quite 30 years ago. (!) What do I remember about this reading? I remember the class discussion. We talked about cliques and bullying and what it feels like to not belong. I’m not sure I was aware of the controversies surrounding this novel until sometime later. Some readers find teenage Holden’s bad attitude, his language, and his exploits (which include drinking and a visit with a prostitute) troubling and even despicable.

I am now the parent of a high school junior, and I find the controversy ridiculous. It still exists however; schools near my town in Illinois now avoid it rather than confront it. Recently, I read a teen novel, Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and something about it reminded me of The Catcher in the Rye, but I couldn’t remember what due to that almost-thirty-years.

So, I re-read The Catcher in the Rye. I now know what links the Wills Grayons and Holden Caulfield, but I’ll save that for the Will Grayson, Will Grayson review. The Catcher in the Rye isn’t nearly as positive as that book, rather it has the sad beauty of a tragedy.

I’m not sure if anyone else would think of The Catcher in the Rye as tragedy. I’ve not hunted down critical reviews and I didn’t check my definition of tragedy before I started writing. But rereading about Holden’s miserable, yet privileged, life I found myself deep in rapture over the power of good literature to rake at the very essence of ourselves and our culture.

Holden is a wealthy New York boarding school student. He has nearly every possible advantage. Everything should be perfect for him if he wouldn’t just throw it all away. Holden gives every appearance of being unaccountably miserable. He has failed out of several schools and doesn’t seem to like anybody or anything. The only class he does well at is English. More importantly, he asserts repeatedly that almost nothing in his life has value. It is all “phoney.” He hates the fakes. And pretty much everything is fake to him. Everyone is living a lie. Yet he goes off and lies himself. Lies to his parents, his teachers, his friends. He lies about his age, his actions, his own intentions. He has built a wall around himself that almost no one can get through to understand him. I have encountered more than one reader who doesn’t understand him. Only his younger sister and one teacher seem able to understand him. However, at the heart of this story, Holden is a sad and broken person. He cannot deal in any way with bullying. He has had personal tragedy in his family and he cannot understand why the rest of his family is able to deal with the pain. Holden looks out on the world and sees only that everybody is ignoring the pain all around them. He is unable to accept the goodness in his life; he must dwell on the bad. However, as a hurting, pissed off teenager, Holden expresses this in obnoxious language and behavior.

The Catcher in the Rye is a sad story. I’m not sure that I really find it to be primarily about a bleak outlook on human indifference, or about the change beginning in the 1950s which led teens to reject the privileges given to them, although the wonderful literary quality of the writing allows me to consider all that while reading it. I think it is about a boy trying to make sense of his world, and crying out for help, like any troubled teen today. The Catcher in the Rye seems to be mostly about the pain of a person who just doesn’t want to see any more pain in the world. He also wants his pain acknowledged. He wants everyone else to see what he sees. This novel seems just as applicable today as it ever was in the past. Reading it allows for insight into a troubled teen while at the same time reminding me that most of our everyday actions in life stroll along the surface, rather than floundering through the depths of pain or happiness.

I’m giving it to my daughter as assigned summer reading.
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Jan 16, 2011 Gayle rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, 1001-books-read

Honestly, does anyone really like this book? I have always thought people say it's their favourite book because they read it at school and haven't read anything else since.

However, I now see that people who have read other books too (including many of my dear friends) actually like it. Tell me, are you lying people? Or is there some merit I have missed?? ...more

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Jan 17, 2011 Nina rated it liked it

Shelves: classics

Salinger captures the essence of adolescent rebellion and alienation very well, but I couldn't quite figure out what his point was. I wonder if people would still be reading this if it had never been banned. ...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Natasha rated it it was amazing

A very good read indeed.
Its the kind of a book one would like to add to one's collection. Funny , interesting, its a narrative story of a boy trying to find a purpose in life; his way.
it killed me. :) ...more

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