THE CATCHER IN THE RYE - J.D. SALLINGER

The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, second hand description, he leaves 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 is just one thing to say about this book; you relate to Holden, the disparaging and contemptuous protagonist, or you don’t.  It is honestly as simple as that.  

Unlike what seems to be a great number of satisfied readers, I found Holden to be an exceptionally judgemental character with little tolerance for others and an immature outlook on life in general.  While some people disregard his troubled and flawed narration on account of its comical cynicism, I couldn’t get over the way he could simply catalogue everyone he met as ‘stupid,’ ‘boring’ or ‘phony.’  

With only a brief glimpse into Holden Caulfield’s life it is difficult to tell exactly what moment, or moments, in it could have made him, him and I can’t say that I personally feel the need or the desire to look further into the boy’s brain to find out.

Basically, I found the book dull and not in any way to my taste but, now that I think about it, maybe I see too much of me in him to really appreciate the novel. Try it out.  Seriously!  You might love it in a way that don’t.  Be sure to let me know what you think about Holden and his story!

Rating: 1/5



Get your hands on the paperback copy from Book Depository or Amazon.

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