Book Review: The Catcher in the Rye
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Recently I decided I wanted to start reading some “classic” American novels. I enjoy reading, but realized that other than a few, I had never really read many books that this country considers “classic.” I was supposed to read The Great Gatsby in high school, but basically just skimmed through it well enough to pass the test. So, I still have to get around to that one at some point. From many options, I chose to begin with The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger.
The book was written and published in short segments in 1945-1946, before being published in novel form in 1951. It is about the life, a few days of it, of 16-year old Holden Caulfield. Caulfield himself narrates the story, and tells it as he would tell a story to someone sitting next to him. He recounts his life as a high school student at Pencey Prep, and a few days after running off to his hometown of New York City, where he finds himself in all types of different situations. While he’s telling his story, the reader is basically living the life, through his eyes, of a 16-year old boy on his own in New York City in the 1940s. His every thought and action is not lost on the reader, as he reveals everything that goes through his mind.
While I would consider pieces of it “somewhat interesting,” I just don’t see what the major fascination is with this book. If you look it up, you will find all sorts of accolades this book has gathered since Salinger wrote it, along with being on every “Best Of” list you can find. Like I said before, it is considered an American classic…I just don’t know why.
Everything in this book seems completely random. The way it started was like Holden Caufield, out of the blue, just decided to tell you about the events of his life that occurred last week. It seemed like he could’ve picked any week of his life to tell the story about and it would have worked just as well. His entire story, which was the entire book, had little meaning (at least to me). Maybe others have found a deeper meaning to it, but I didn’t. Across the surface, with the way it started until the way it ended, it just seemed meaningless and random.
You would also think looking through the eyes of a 16-year old boy on his own in 1940’s New York City would be very interesting. But for the most part, it just wasn’t. Some parts of it were, but there were never any moments in the book that I thought, “man, I just cannot put this book down.” And I also thought Caulfield could be pretty annoying as well in several parts of the book. From some of his actions to some of his thoughts, he was someone that you wonder if you would even want to hang around with as a 16-year old kid. Though, I do realize that the author probably did this on purpose because all 16-year olds can be annoying and immature, and reading this as an adult allows those things to glare a little more.
What I got the most out of this book was life in the 1940s. As a person who enjoys history, I like to learn about life in America during different time periods. Not just from the facts and figures side of it, but from a mental standpoint. This book allowed me to do that to an extent. It revealed aspects of life from that time period in New York City, as well as aspects of teenage life all over the country. Holden uses slang terms that researchers say accurately reflect the time, such as “old,” (I went to the movies with old Sally), “phony,” and “shooting the bull.” I thought that was pretty cool and along with other 1940s reflections, is what I gained most from the book.
The story wasn’t a bad one, it just wasn’t very entertaining either. It’s exactly like sitting down next to someone while you two are waiting to catch a bus, and them telling you a story about their life last week…although way more descriptive and personal than that kind of story would otherwise be. It’s decent enough to keep you listening, but when the bus comes, you aren’t upset that the story comes to an end. And maybe that’s the way Salinger meant the book to be when he wrote it. I wouldn’t exactly recommend this book for anyone who wants a good story to read, unless if they were like me and wanted to check off a classic American novel from their list. But I would be curious to know what others think of it and if they got anything out of it that I didn’t. I know the general perception has swung both ways over the years, despite it being such as classic book. Let me know what you think if you have read it!
Rating 2/5
Garett