The Catcher in the Rye

Everyone should read it when they are 13 or 14. Even though it's sort of old-fashioned by now it's still relevant because it really gets to how it feels being that age. I'm planning to give it to my daughter when she turns 13 this year.

 

its a good quick book but i wouldnt go too crazy about it. the only thing i really got out of it was that a lot of people are phonies but if we dwell on it were going to be miserable like him. theres better things to think about.

 

if youre at the right point in your life when you read it, you feel as if its been written for you. which I think, has made it be so popular for so long. It's a classic book, and to say its overrated, like I've heard many people say, doesn't seem right. I can't think f another book which has had such a profund effect on people.

 

The real strengths of the book are its dialog and its seemingly-spontaneous stream-of-consciousness feel. Also, the characters are very well formed. But I would say J.D. Salinger has written the best dialog I've ever read. Nine Stories also is incredible.

 

This book is hilarious. It doesn't matter how old you are. Some of the things that go through Holden's head are so funny I can't stand it, especially the way he humors the stupid people he runs into, humors them so that they are actually enjoying their own stupid goddamn conversation. I also appreciate his humility while dealing with his own shortcomings, in a way that lacks apology. The character development, which relies on what I'd agree is top shelf dialogue, is spot on, "descriptive as hell."

Mr. Antolini's speech is one of my favorite passages. All child molestation traits aside, Mr. Antolini knows what the hell he's talking about when he describes the cycle of writer to writer, passing along information and knowledge...the meaning and cultivation of history.

While I agree that the book should be read when you're in the midst of teenage angst, I also feel the need to stress that it really doesn't matter. If you've got a good sense of humor, you'll like it. If you've ever went through a dark time in your teenage years, you'll appreciate what Salinger is trying to get across.

 

Yeah...mistake. The only thing you could follow up On The Road with is Visions of Cody or Subterraneans or Dharma Bums.

Or The Grapes of Wrath.

After Grapes of Wrath, you can't read anything. For about three months.

 

Salinger is one of my favorite authors. I read Catcher in highschool and like any dreary angsty teen related to Holden. However, later i read Franny and Zooey which i love even more and relate to Franny now (oh how things change ) And now i'm reading Nine Stories which i really adore as well.

 

It's been the book of selection for every high-profile killer and serial killer for the past few decades :leaving:



Hotwater

 

AFAIK after this book Salinger stopped writing for others than himself (!), bought a "bunker" house on top of a really steep slope where lives till the present day . He does not accept any visit, has a herd of guard dogs and appears once in a month in the (not so) nearby village just to buy what he needs. If this is true he is the purest misanthropist EVER, no wonder that he is top of the list in the weirdo's digest.

On the other side, the (in)famous mafious leader Bernardo Provenzano, wanted for nearly 40 years and recently arrested (as soon as Silvio Berlusconi lost the elections, note), one of the most cynical murderers ever, had a Bible as his sole reading in his refuge, along with a long list of murderers, psychopaths and a whole army of dangerous religious zealots with the same literary tastes. Still I consider the Bible a good reading.

This book has a nearly untranslatable title. In my (italian) version there is a page of explaination about its meaning and how the translator gave up opting for a shallow "Il giovane Holden" ("young Holden") for title.

 

pretty boring. i didn't like the ending. while i was reading it, i hated it. but looking back it was half-way decent, not anything great really.

 

this is one of those books you either "get" or "don't get". a lot of people read it and all they get from it is "I went to a bar, and I tried to get drunk, but they wouldn't serve me, so I left, and I saw some nuns, and I felt depressed, and I talked to the nuns, and I read stuff in a newspaper, and I overheard a phony conversation"... etc.

actually, if you're perceptive enough and read into Holden's character, there are millions of things going on beneath the surface. but it's certainly not for everyone. it absolutely rocked my world, though, the first dozen or so times I read it.

 

i thought that this book was ok but then maby my age and the fact that i was doing it for my A level course work went agenst me!! however another good book to read if u enjoyed this is 'Vernon God Little' by DBC pierre. often its been described and a modern version of it i enjoyed it much more and u could see the connections.

 

The only book I managed to finish reading properly to date, I loved it. ^_^

 

I just picked this up from the library today because i heard it was good.

 

^-^ I liked it. Just finished It two days ago.

 

Like John Lennon, I started reading this and some bastard started shooting at me, luckily I had heard all about the Lennon incident and was keeping an eye out for this kind of thing, so I saw it coming and was wearing a Kavlar Jacket and managed to shoot back with a sawn off shotgun

 

I've tried to read it about five times. I just can't get through it. I think it's pretty dull. Someday I'll finish the S.O.B.

 

I've always wanted to read this book... I just wasn't sure if it was all it was made out to be.

 

it's pretty mediocre/dull on the surface. thats what i liked bout it. give it another try.

 

Read it. Loved it.