books 2011 // # 22 - The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Title: The Catcher in the Rye
Author: J. D. Salinger (1919 - 2010)
Publication Date: 1945 / 46 (in serial form)
Genre: Classics. Coming of Age. Young adult.
Page Count: 192.
Summary: Since his debut...as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent." Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins, "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. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them." His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation. [Source].
Review in 5 words or less: Very honest, straightforward style | Great characterization | Holden's way of narrating gets repetitive especially during the second half of the book | Definitely worth reading |
Personal Rating: ◊ ◊ ◊ of 5.
Review:
I loved the beginning. In fact, when I first picked up the book I merely intended to skim through the first sentences and see what the style is like. Turns out I stayed to finish the whole book instead of merely sneaking a peek.
Despite the language, which might have been more shocking back when the book first came out in 1945, it's evident that Holden is very intelligent, sensitive and loves to question the things he sees / look behind the shiny surface the world likes to present. Thus it's not really a surprise that he quickly sees through phonies (by the way, the whole book goes into sometimes disgusting detail - also a way of setting itself aside from "phony books" which happen to gloss over more disgusting parts of life. See Holden's description of his roommates for example) or wonders where ducks go in winter. Solid question, by the way.
That being said, despite the awesome, epic "it's the book of the century"-hype, I have to admit that Holden gets repetitive. So much so, in fact, that it really irritated me during the second half of the book. By that time I really found myself wishing Holden would quit saying: "That killed me." "He/she/it/ really does." "Boy,..." or calling everyone, including his kid sister, "Old Phoebe" etc.
To say it with Holden's words: "It's getting on my godam nerves. It really does. That kills me."
So overall The Catcher in the Rye is a great, honest book, but I really got distracted by the Holden-isms. Definitely worth reading, though.
Links: @ wikipedia
Other books I've read by this author: Franny and Zooey (1961).