I was never into it, really. It's right up there with Moby Dick for me. But that was years ago, so I might pick it up again, again. Just to see. It's not like I have anything else to do
Someday, everything is gonna be diff'rent
When I paint my masterpiece.
I don't know why it's considered such great literature and it's been years since I read the book but I do remember how the book so perfectly showed what pitiful sad creatures teenage boys without direction and guidance can be. I remember having to take quite a few extra showers while reading that book because it just made me feel so grimy and dirty like Holden's greasy acne skin somehow got all over me too. And I would have liked Holden to have taken a good soaking bath too.
Rose tint my world. Keep me safe from my trouble and pain. 白飞梦
I read it for the first time just last year-part of my decision to read some so-called "great works"
I thought it was a terrific waste of time. One of the worst I've read in quite a while. Perhaps it's point was to show how pathetic is the male teenage condition. Or, perhaps the style of writing and the subject at the time it was first published accounts for the fame?? I am clueless as to why anyone would like this book.
All I came away with was that nothing happened- I kept thinking something had to happen by the end, but no, nothing. Oh, and I hated the irritating repetitious way it was written.
At least the weird book I'm reading now- Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk- strange as it is, has lots of surprises, has an interesting writing style.... and I certainly don't think it will end up on anyone "classic" list....
"Let low-country intruder approach a cove
And eyes as gray as icicle fangs measure stranger
For size, honesty, and intent." John Foster West
My biggest reading surprise this year (so far) has been Jane Eyre. I was determined it was going to be horrid because I hated Wuthering Heights (different sister, yes, but I'd heard they had similar styles). But I absolutely adored Jane Eyre. I loved Charlotte Bronte's style, and I adored Jane. Very much a heroine after my own heart in many ways.
Yes, that was a hijack. Oops
Someday, everything is gonna be diff'rent
When I paint my masterpiece.
An English professor encouraged me to read Catcher just before he flunked me. Told me I desperately needed some direction and this was one of the books to read to get it. It was a recently published work then and I still haven't read it. Perhaps I should have but I got direction from another source.
Sandy
Leap into the boundless and make it your home.
Zhuang-zi
I re-read Catcher a few years ago and liked it fairly well but didn't see what all the fuss was about.
I do remember that when I first read it, it was the first time I had ever seen "the F word" in print and that made a bit of an impression on me.
One of my high school English teachers dropped the book from the course, after one of her brilliant young students ran away from home after reading it.
If you want an atmospheric evocation of teenage weltschmertz and up-yer-own-backsidedness, then Catcher in the Rye is yer book.
If you want a story with a beginning, middle and end, it is not.
The question is, why does anyone want an atmospheric evocation of teenage weltschmertz and up-yer-own-backsidedness? There doesn't seem to be any shortage of it in real life. Maybe those English professors thought that they themselves had got past that stage, and maybe they had not.
My daughter read it for an independent study project in 7th grade (I remember I had to sign a release for her to read it!). She really liked it, and identified strongly with Holden Caufield (which is kind of scary, when you think of it).
The project was on teen rebellion, if I recall correctly. She also had to watch "Rebel Without a Cause."
Redwolf
...agus déanfaidh mé do mholadh ar an gcruit a Dhia, a Dhia liom!
I read it in college, and didn't care for it either. Maybe it was because I was over my own teen angst, but I felt like Holden was, for lack of a better term, a douchebag.
Tell us something.: I used to be a regular then I took up the bassoon. Bassoons don't have a lot of chiff. Not really, I have always been a drummer, and my C&F years were when I was a little tired of the drums. Now I'm back playing drums. I mist the C&F years, though.
I read it later in life and didn't care for it, but I was a conformer and probably wouldn't have liked it as a teen either. Having said that, I think it's a great book and even though I didn't like it I could recognize it for it's literary value. Really well written, great character development, powerful theme.
I think it speaks better to kids of a certain age and especially who tend to be rebellious and questioning and unsettled. Just because it didn't speak to me doesn't mean it doesn't speak.
