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What Members Thought

Cecily
The (in)famous story of Holden Caulfield’s descent into delinquency, credited with inspiring murder (of John Lennon) and attempted murder (Ronald Reagan, amongst others) and, more trivially, of bringing the word “phony” to prominence, as well as being too frank in its use of swearing and sexual references for some tastes.

The title relates to Holden imagining himself in a field of young children playing tag, catching them lest they get too near to a cliff (a metaphor for descent into the depravit
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Shea
I am glad I finally read this book and almost wish I had been able to read when it was first written or at least when I was a teenager. I enjoyed the first person storytelling and the honesty with which Holden narrates. I imagine the book, being in a teenage boy's vernacular, is not supposed to be grammatically pleasing but sometimes the language and sentence structure made it hard for me to read. As the mother of a 13 year old boy some of the story was cringe worthy. I cannot imagine my son, ev ...more
Lisa
Oct 02, 2011 rated it did not like it
None of the English classes I took in high school ever included this book in the syllabus. In recent years, I had read/heard about it over and over and always meant to read it because I knew it is considered a classic. My daughter read it last year for 11th grade English and loved it so I decided it was time to try it. I've got to admnit unfortuantely that I just don't get this book. I don't understand what it is supposed to be about. Holden Caulfield has recently been asked to leave his boardin ...more
Ben
Nov 22, 2010 rated it liked it
Summary: Teen angst mixed with a digestable dollop of life's larger thoughts and ideas.

Things I liked:

The narrative style: The voice of narrator is amusing and self reflective. I enjoyed the observations he made and style in which he made them.



Things I thought could have been improved: I found the end of the book quite jarring (view spoiler) I guess this was in keeping with the general style of the book.

Standout feature: I thought Hold
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Katherine
Nov 15, 2009 rated it really liked it
I remember reading this book in Switzerland and liking the narrative of it.
Lola D
Jul 09, 2008 rated it it was amazing
Shelves: classics
I remember reading this book during lunch in high school. I loved it then.
Cinna
Apr 03, 2007 rated it liked it
Aparna
Apr 17, 2007 rated it it was amazing
Yesha
Jun 29, 2007 rated it it was amazing
Felisa
Aug 27, 2007 rated it it was amazing
Theresa
Oct 21, 2007 rated it liked it
Taylor Jenkins
Nov 11, 2007 rated it it was amazing
Alexa
Dec 01, 2007 rated it it was amazing
Ryan
Mar 08, 2008 rated it really liked it
Abhi Dasgupta
Apr 24, 2008 rated it it was amazing
Alice
Jun 30, 2008 rated it it was amazing
Kelli
Jul 02, 2008 marked it as to-read
Terry
Jul 16, 2008 rated it really liked it
Lianne
Mar 24, 2009 marked it as to-read
Lauren
Jun 10, 2009 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Shante
Sep 05, 2009 rated it really liked it
Shelves: young-adult
Erin Leiter
Oct 13, 2009 rated it really liked it
Marijn
May 23, 2010 marked it as to-read
Shelves: soon
Steph
Dec 21, 2010 marked it as to-read
Freddy
Aug 18, 2011 rated it it was ok
Mark Petrillo
Sep 20, 2011 rated it did not like it
Jeska Duman
Oct 11, 2011 rated it liked it
Laura
Dec 09, 2011 rated it really liked it
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