A Reader’s Companion to J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye

By Peter G. Beidler

This second edition of Peter G. Beidler's Readers Companion builds on the success of the first edition. It will be an indispensable guide for teachers, students, and general readers who want fully to appreciate Salinger's perennial bestseller. Now six decades old, The Catcher in the Rye contains references to people, places, books, movies, and historical events that will puzzle many twenty-first century readers. This edition includes a new section on reactions to Salinger's death in January, 2010. Beidler provides some 250 explanations to help readers make sense of the culture through which Holden Caulfield stumbles as he comes of age. He provides a map showing the various stops in Holden's Manhattan odyssey. Of particular interest to readers whose native language is not English is his glossary of more than a hundred terms, phrases, and slang expressions. In his introductory essay, "Catching The Catcher in the Rye," Beidler discusses such topics as the three-day time line for the novel, the way the novel grew out of two earlier-published short stories, the extent to which the novel is autobiographical, what Holden looks like, and the reasons for the enduring appeal of the novel. The many photographs in the Reader's Companion give fascinating glimpses into the world that Holden has made famous. Beidler also provides discussion of some of the issues that have engaged scholars down through the years: the meaning of Holden's red hunting hat, whether Holden writes his novel in an insane asylum, Mr. Antolini's troubling actions, and Holden's close relationship with his sister and his two brothers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Coffeetown Press
• Release date: Jun 7, 2011
• ISBN: 9781603811170

Peter G. Beidler

PETER G. BEIDLER is the Lucy G. Moses Distinguished Professor of English, emeritus, at Lehigh University. In a his long career, he has published more often in the Chaucer Review than any other scholar. He is the author of The Wife of Bath in the Bedford Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism series, Masculinities in Chaucer, and some twenty other books on various literary and pedagogical subjects. He was a Fulbright professor at Sichuan University in mainland China and as the Robert Foster Cherry Professor at Baylor University in Texas. The winner of several teaching awards, he was named national Professor of the Year in 1983 by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation. He now lives in Seattle, Washington.

Book preview

A Reader’s Companion to

J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye

Second Edition

by

Peter G. Beidler

SMASHWORDS EDITION

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PUBLISHED BY:

Coffeetown Press on Smashwords

A Reader’s Companion to J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye Second Edition

Copyright © 2011 by Coffeetownpress

Published by Coffeetown Press for Smashwords

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All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or used in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means without the prior written permission of the publisher, who may be contacted by e-mail at the address on the bottom of this page.

Copyright © 2011 by Coffeetown Press

Beidler, Peter G., 1940–

A Reader’s Companion to J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye / Second Edition by Peter G. Beidler

Includes bibliographical references, map, glossary, photographs, study questions, and indexes.

ISBN 978-1-60381-117-0 (ePub)

1. Salinger, J. D. (Jerome David), 1919–2010.—The Catcher in the Rye.

2. Characters—Holden Caulfield. 3. Caulfield, Holden (Fictitious character)—Film and video adaptations. 4. Criticism. 5. Explanatory notes. 6. Glossary for ESL and EFL readers. 7. Discussion and essay questions.

Cover image by Calloway M’Cloud

Cover design by Sabrina Sun

Produced in the United States of America

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

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Contents

Preface

Note on the Second Edition

Acknowledgments

Catching The Catcher in the Rye

1. Time line of The Catcher in the Rye

2. Biographical references

3. Salinger’s life in The Catcher in the Rye

4. From the stories to The Catcher in the Rye

5. Holden Caulfield’s appearance

6. The Catcher in the Rye in other fiction

7. The Catcher in the Rye in movie and song

8. The enduring appeal of The Catcher in the Rye

9. The aftermath of J. D. Salinger’s death

Explanatory Notes to The Catcher in the Rye

Holden says good-by to Pencey (chapters 1–7)

Holden goes to Manhattan (chapters 8–14)

Holden wanders Manhattan (chapters 15–20)

Holden goes home (chapters 21–26)

Glossary for ESL and EFL Readers

Questions for Readers of The Catcher in the Rye

Index to The Catcher in the Rye

Preface

In 1961 George R. Creeger predicted that perhaps in fifty years we shall need a scholarly edition of The Catcher in the Rye (Treacherous Desertion, reprinted in J. D. Salinger and the Critics, ed. William F. Belcher and James W. Lee [Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1962], p. 99). Creeger was thinking mostly about the prep-school jargon, which he thought would be far outdated by the twenty-first century. In fact, however, the language has remained remarkably fresh and readable, but other features of the novel now require explanations. This reader’s companion is by no means a scholarly edition of the novel. Rather, it is designed in part to give twenty-first-century readers and teachers annotations with cultural information about J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, information that would have been common knowledge to most first readers of the novel, but which is now lost in last-century mists. After all, it has been six decades since the now-classic narrative of the three-day fictional adventures of Holden Caulfield took place. Indeed, the novel now reads almost like a work of historical fiction. In addition to providing as much as I could find about the historical and cultural backdrop to the novel, I include many features not previously available in this detail and between one set of covers:

—some 250 detailed page-by-page explanations of the many references that Holden makes to his contemporary mid-twentieth-century people, places, and events.

—information and speculation on the extent to which Holden’s adventures mirror events in Salinger’s own life.

—discussion of some of the changes Salinger made when reworking material from two earlier short stories about Holden into a much expanded role for him in the novel.

—a detailed chronology of Holden’s adventures.

—information about the relevance of the books and authors Holden mentions.

—information about the movies and the movie actors Holden mentions.

—discussion of several post-Catcher novels and movies that show the influence of The Catcher in the Rye.

—stills from movies Holden mentions, and lines from several songs referred to in the novel.

—a map of Manhattan showing the places Holden visits.

—photographs of many of the New York City scenes that Holden mentions, particularly in Central Park, the Museum of Natural History, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

—brief quotations from literary critics about such issues as why the novel has been so popular, what kind of California institution Holden is in, the significance of Holden Caulfield’s name and red hunting hat, Mr. Antolini’s motives in patting Holden’s head, and Holden’s intense relationship with his sister.

—a glossary of more than 150 terms and phrases that ESL amd EFL readers may not understand.

—indexes to the more than 200 characters and people mentioned in The Catcher in the Rye and nearly 75 places.

—information about Salinger’s January 27, 2010, death at age 91, and a medley of reactions to it.

—study, discussion, and essay questions.

Note on the Second Edition

This second edition of A Companion to J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is required by the need to acknowledge Salinger’s death on January 27, 2010, to report on some of the many reactions to his death, and to incorporate information on two important books that have been published since the first edition: J. D. California’s novel 60 Years Later: Coming through the Rye, and Kenneth Slawenski’s biography J. D. Salinger: A Life Raised High. Bruce F. Mueller and Will Hochman’s Critical Companion to J. D. Salinger: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work (New York: Facts on File, 2011) appeared too late for detailed inclusion in this book. Readers of The Catcher in the Rye will be interested in pages 55–112 of this 500-page book. The authors kindly acknowledge incorporating material from the first edition of my book. I have also made a number of smaller changes, reported my discovery of the source of the Stekel quotation in chapter 24 of the novel, added a list of questions to guide readers of The Catcher in the Rye, and added an index.

Acknowledgments

I owe thanks to several people who have helped me with this project: Kathe Morrow and Pat Ward of the Lehigh University libraries, Molly K. Riley of the University of Washington libraries, and Ellen Fitzgerald of the Seattle Public Library for helping me to find many arcane dates and facts and printed materials; Steven Lichak of the digital media studios at Lehigh University for help in producing usable photographs; Emily Barth for her help in securing from the archives of the American Museum of Natural History photographs of the museum and some of its exhibits and dioramas; Dorothea Arnold for her help in locating information on the Egyptian tombs and mummies at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Ron Mandelbaum of Photofest in Manhattan for making available stills of a number of movies; Jo B. Lysholdt for help in designing the map of Manhattan; Calloway M’Cloud for the cover design; Marcela B. Gamallo for proofreading and helping with the glossary for ESL and EFL readers; Michelle Horwitz for help with the index; and especially Marion Frack Egge for information about the musical references in the novel and for her many helpful editorial and technicsl suggestions on various drafts of this book. I must also gratefully acknowledge the help of the World Wide Web in researching and checking certain facts.

I wish to thank Paul Acker, editor of ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews, for permission to use some materials from my article on Captains Courageous. I am grateful to the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, TIME magazine, and Photofest for permission to publish photos and stills. I took the photos in and around Central Park.

My quotations from J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye are taken from the widely accessible Little, Brown paperback edition (Boston, 1951). Page reference to quotations from the novel are placed parenthetically (usually without p. or pp.) in the text.

Catching The Catcher in the Rye

1. Time line of The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye apparently takes place in mid-December, 1949, on a Saturday, Sunday, and Monday a week or more before Christmas. There is repeated evidence for such specificity in dating, though not all of the movie and play references jibe perfectly. The key evidence for the year 1949 is that Holden tells us (38) that his ten-year-old brother Allie died on July 18, 1946, when Holden was thirteen. We know that Holden is sixteen (9) during the present action of the novel, which then must take place around three years later. We know from several references that the action takes place in December—it was December and all (4)—and in the pre-Christmas season. Given the reference to Holden’s going over to Sally Hayes’s place to help trim the tree, mid-December seems right. Other references corroborate that dating: She and old Marty were drinking Tom Collinses—in the middle of December, for God’s sake (74); Christmas was coming soon (118); It was [. . .] pretty near Christmas (197); and so on. Critics like Robert Miltner are wrong to say that Holden comes of age in the 1950s and that his father is a Fifties male (Mentor Mori; or, Sibling Society and the Catcher in the Bly in J. P. Steed, ed., The Catcher in the Rye: New Essays [New York: Peter Lang, 2002], pp. 33, 36). By 1950, the main action of the novel has ended.

If we assume any sort of temporal accuracy on Salinger’s part—that is, if we assume that he was really thinking of 1949 and that he consulted a calendar—we might accurately enough suppose that, since Christmas fell on a Saturday in 1949, the Saturday action of the novel may start on either Saturday, December 10, or Saturday, December 17. The 10th may be a better guess. The 17th seems late, since Phoebe tells Holden that their father will miss her play, which is on Friday, because he is flying to California (162). If the Saturday of the novel were the 17th, that would put her play the following Friday on Christmas Eve—not a probable time for a school pageant—and it would also mean that their father would probably not be home for Christmas Day, either. His missing Christmas is unlikely, in view of Phoebe’s reporting that D.B. may be coming home for Christmas (164). Surely Mr. Caulfield would not miss the family holiday reunion. The events of the novel seem to come well before Christmas because Phoebe tells Holden that she hasn’t started her Christmas shopping yet (178), and because the workmen are just unloading a big Christmas tree (196). I am, then, skeptical of Robert M. Slabey’s complex religious reading, since it is based on the assumption that the novel starts on December 17, during Advent (see "The Catcher in the Rye: Christian Theme and Symbol," CLA Journal 6 [1963]: 170–83). If the 10th is the right starting date, then the events of the novel take place from Saturday, December 10, to Monday, December 12, 1949. (See December 2nd in my explanatory notes to chapter 2, below). Since D.B. is coming home for Christmas, we are perhaps to assume that he takes Holden back with him to California in early 1950, where the change of scene and the sunny California weather will help him to recuperate. Holden would then be writing the novel in a California sanitarium in 1950—probable enough in view of the 1951 publication date of The Catcher in the Rye.

Saturday (chapters 1–8). Saturday starts badly for Holden. As manager of the Pencey Prep fencing team, he takes the team to New York City, where he loses the fencing gear on the subway. Unable to compete, he and the rest of the team return to Pencey Prep early, in time for the big football game with Saxon Hall. Then, while most other students are at the game, Holden pays a visit to Mr. Spencer, his history teacher. He returns to his dormitory and talks with his roommates Ackley and Stradlater. While Stradlater is on a date with Jane Gallagher, Holden goes out for burgers with Ackley and Brossard, then returns to write a composition for Stradlater about Allie’s baseball glove. When Stradlater returns, Holden picks a fight with him and gets his face bloodied. Around midnight Holden leaves Pencey Prep on the train, where he chats with Ernie Morrow’s mother. He finally arrives in New York City.

Sunday (chapters 9–20). Early Sunday morning, at the start of Holden’s longest day, he arrives at Penn Station. Following a circuitous cab ride to the Edmont Hotel, he checks in before going down to its Lavender Room, where he dances with three visitors from Seattle until the place closes. He then takes another cab to Ernie’s in Greenwich Village, engages in a conversation with Lillian Simmons and her date, and walks back to the Edmont, where he enlists the services of a prostitute named Sunny. Without having had sex with her, he pays and dismisses her, then goes to bed alone. After being beaten up by the pimp Maurice, he leaves the hotel with his bags, checks them at Grand Central Station, and then has breakfast with two nuns before going to—but not into—the Museum of Natural History. Later, he meets Sally Hayes at the Biltmore and takes her to the Sunday matinee of I Know My Love. They go skating at Rockefeller Center and part acrimoniously when he insults her. Holden takes in a movie alone at Radio City Music Hall, then meets Carl Luce at the Wicker Bar in the Seton Hotel. He wanders around a bit more, walks to Central Park to see if he can find the ducks, sits mournfully alone on a park bench, and finally walks home for a chat with Phoebe. It is by now very late indeed.

Monday (chapters 21–26). Monday starts early with Holden’s arrival home. He wakes Phoebe to talk with her, manages to avoid his parents, and then goes to the apartment of Mr. Antolini, his former English teacher. After talking with Mr. Antolini, Holden sleeps on the living room couch. Waking up to Mr. Antolini’s patting his head, Holden rushes away. It is already starting to get light. He goes to Grand Central Station and sleeps on a bench there for a couple of uncomfortable hours, then tries to eat a doughnut before heading north on Fifth Avenue. On the way he decides that he will hitchhike out West, where he plans to work in a gas station and build a cabin near the woods. He leaves a message with Phoebe at her school, instructing her to meet him on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art so he can return her money. He changes his mind about running away when she comes with her suitcase to join him. They go to the zoo in Central Park and then to the carrousel. Abandoning his plan to hitchhike West, Holden goes home.

2. Biographical references

Because I refer to the following works about Salinger’s life with some frequency in the pages below, I give the full citations, with brief annotations, here. I list them chronologically by date of appearance:

Henry Anatole Grunwald, The Invisible Man: A Biographical Collage in Grunwald, ed., Salinger: A Critical and Personal Portrait (New York: Harper, 1962; reissued as a Pocket Books Giant Cardinal edition in 1963), pp. 3–19. This chapter reprints Sonny: An Introduction, the September 15, 1961, TIME magazine cover story on J. D. Salinger (see Figure 1). The TIME article says little about Salinger’s first novel but speculates on why he had become so reclusive. Its cover is one of the few portraits of Salinger’s face. Artist Robert Vickrey painted it based on an earlier photograph of the author, since Salinger of course refused to sit for the portrait.

Warren French, That David Copperfield Kind of Crap in J. D. Salinger (New York: Twayne, 1963), pp. 21–35. This early sketch of the little that was known about Salinger’s life is somewhat helpful, but also snippy and judgmental. French has this to say, for example, about Salinger’s insistence on reclusive isolation: His seclusion may actually result from an inability to make the social adjustments expected of mature members of society (pp. 32–33).

Ian Hamilton, In Search of J. D. Salinger (New York: Vintage, 1988). Abbreviated as In Search below. This book, the first attempt at a full-length biography of Salinger, is as interesting for Hamilton’s narrative of his methods of uncovering information as it is for what it reveals of Salinger. Hamilton talked with Salinger’s friends and publishers, looked at old school records and talked with Salinger’s classmates, uncovered files of Salinger’s correspondence in university archives, and so on. The narrative ends with Hamilton’s somewhat embittered account of the legal issues between him and Salinger. Salinger’s lawyers filed an injunction against Hamilton and Random House, mostly on the basis of Hamilton’s plan to publish quotations from unpublished letters. By then Random House already had the book in bound galley proofs, a copy of which Salinger read and objected to. The case finally went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to review a lower court’s ruling that the book not be published. In Search of J. D. Salinger is a revision of that book, paraphrasing portions of the letters, and making certain other changes, as well. Hamilton did, however, donate a copy of the bound galley of the original biography to the Princeton University Library.

Figure 1: This September 15, 1961, cover of TIME magazine came out ten years after the publication of The Catcher in tne Rye. Robert Vickrey’s portrait is one of the very few we have of Salinger. Courtesy TIME.

Joyce Maynard, At Home in the World: A Memoir (New York: Picador, 1999). Abbreviated as At Home below. When Joyce Maynard published in the New York Times Magazine, at age eighteen, a personal essay in which she looked back on her life and her generation, J. D. Salinger wrote a letter to her at Yale. That letter started a several-month correspondence that led to her dropping out of Yale and moving into his home in Cornish, New Hampshire. Salinger was 35 years older than she and had a daughter, Margaret (see her book, below), not much more than a year younger than she, and a son considerably younger. At that time, both children spent most of their time living a short distance away with their mother, whom Salinger had long since divorced. Joyce Maynard stayed in Cornish with him for almost a year before he asked her to leave. In At Home in the World Maynard tells about her own troubled youth, her correspondence with Jerry, her stormy year with him, and her grief at their separation. She was by law not permitted to quote from his letters to her, but she paraphrases generously, revealing many details about her infatuation, his medical and dietary proclivities, and their sexual difficulties.

Paul Alexander, Salinger: A Biography (Los Angeles: Renaissance Books, 1999). Abbreviated as Salinger in the explanatory notes below. This biography has relatively few new insights to offer the reader about its elusive subject. It draws on some new sources, it picks up some materials from the bound galleys of Ian Hamilton’s unpublished biography, which Alexander consulted at Princeton, and it brings in information from journalists, most of them women, who managed to interview Salinger. Part of Alexander’s book consists of chronologically-organized plot summaries of Salinger’s early fiction, interwoven with the few known facts and Alexander’s conjectures about Salinger’s life. Alexander’s approach to Salinger’s biography is influenced by his inference that Much, if not all, of Salinger’s writing—at least after his return from the war—was, to a significant degree, autobiographical (p. 115). Given his approach to a man whom we know mostly through his fiction, Alexander perhaps was compelled to make such an inference, the validity of which is, of course, questionable. Alexander sees a dark pattern in Salinger’s attraction to young girls, both as his personal companions and as subjects for his fiction. He even speculates that one reason Salinger has insisted on a life of seclusion is that he sought and protected his privacy because he had a penchant for young women that he did not want to reveal to the public (pp. 312–13).

Margaret A. Salinger, Dream Catcher: A Memoir (New York: Washington Square Press, 2000). Abbreviated as Dream Catcher below. In her book, Margaret (Peggy) has consulted her mother Claire and her aunt Doris (J. D. Salinger’s older sister), as well as recounting her own memories, to write a detailed and personal account of her father’s life. She makes much of her father’s Jewish roots and possible experiences with anti-Semitism and, later, with various forms of Buddhism. She makes frequent references to Salinger’s fiction, which she clearly considers to be strongly connected to her father’s own life experiences. Her father did not cooperate in the book. At the end of the book a short essay, The Salingers: A Family Album, written by her father’s first cousin, Jay Goldberg, gives useful information about her paternal mother’s and her paternal grandfather’s origins. Included in the book are a number of family photos of Doris, Claire, Margaret, and Salinger himself.

Kenneth Slawenski, J. D. Salinger: A Life Raised High (Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, UK: Pomona, 2010). Abbreviated J. D. Salinger below, this biography

Reviews for A Reader’s Companion to J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye

[anniik_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Description of book from Amazon.com

Review
Novel by J.D. Salinger, published in 1951. The influential and widely acclaimed story details the two days in the life of 16-year-old Holden Caulfield after he has been expelled from prep school. Confused and disillusioned, he searches for truth and rails against the "phoniness" of the adult world. He ends up exhausted and emotionally ill, in a psychiatrist's office. After he recovers from his breakdown, Holden relates his experiences to the reader.

My comments

I enjoyed this book. I found myself relating with Holden more than I thought I would, especially remembering my teenage years of never really feeling I belonged, of always feeling everyone else and everything around me was "phony" and...just not enough. I think I'd describe this book as a teenage version of "American Beauty." Good book.

[matteo1121 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

BEST BOOOK EVER!

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Het is vooral de "stem" die het hem doet in dit boek. Holden Cauldfield is in de grond een onuitstaanbare puber die zijn gal spuwt op alles en iedereen. Hij roept weerstand op bij de lezer, zeker in de manier waarop hij omgaat met de mensen die hij op zijn weg ontmoet. Holden is ook het typisch rijkeluiszoontje dat zich veel kan permitteren. Maar tegelijk wekt hij ook compassie op: hij blijkt maar een jongetje dat snakt naar goedheid en vriendelijkheid, zielig zelfs. Wat overblijft is de langgerekte noodkreet van een eigenzinnig jongeman die worstelt met de wereld (zijn hypocrisie en sociale normen) en het leven (waar zijn de eenden in de winter naartoe?).Grote verdienste is natuurlijk het schetsen van de contouren van wat een nieuwe jeugdcultuur zou worden, en het vertolken van de worsteling van jongvolwassenen.

[kren250 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Classic novel of a confused youth.

[jenn88-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I picked this book up several times but could never make it past chapter two. I hated the way the boy talked. I don't know what made me keep picking it up, but finally I made it all the way through. And I really enjoyed it.

Holden Caulfield is sixteen and has gotten expelled from prep school. Basically it's about going through your teenage years. Everyone's had those days where nothing goes right or you just don't care. That's what this book is about.

[brakketh-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great novel written from subjective perspective of Holden Caulfield who is disengaged from the world around him. I feel like this novel still holds up brilliantly well as a presentation of adolescent feelings of alienation from society and peers.

[tysonadams · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I've tried to like this book, I really have. Yet every time I have read it I've still found myself not seeing what was so good about this.

[vclarke-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Holden Caulfield is one of literatures most unique characters. I loved reading this book in high school and still love it now. Salinger's use of the teenager voice still resonates with young adults today. Holden struggles to cope with the loss of his brother, and he is unable to connect with his peers despite his best and worst efforts.

[dasam-5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Perhaps I missed too much having not read this when I was 16 or so. I certainly can still recall the sense I had then that I was from another planet and terribly unlike everyone else in the world. There is a necessary narcissism to being that young and building some sense of self from apparently nothing. The scene where Holden walks streets fearful he will disappear is also something I can remember feeling when his age. Nonetheless, there were other novels I have read that have made a greater impact on me and probably would still be more impactful even if I had read Catcher 50 years ago. But who knows? maybe I am being a phony?

[rsplenda477 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Simply one of the all time greats. Salinger's book draws parallels to every young person's life when growing up into this adult, and sometimes cruel world. I couldn't help but feel that Salinger was speaking about my own life when reading this masterpiece.

[leftik_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I don't even really know what to write about this book.

This is another one that I think I would have liked if I was still an angsty teenager, but Holden only managed to get on my nerves during this book. He could never make up his mind and he was so crazily negative.

I also think I really could have benefited from having this book taught to me. I'm smart enough to know that this book is chocked full of symbolism, but I'm not smart enough to know what that symbolism actually is.

I'm glad I can say I read it, but I'm not seeing the need to read it again. (esp. since it took so long to read the first time...)

[alfonso809 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well, it is not what I expected… and I don’t mean that on a bad way… this is some good shit… but I was expecting some crazy shit that was finally going to make me snap and go into a killing spree… but is just a good book about a serial killer pigeon doing some weird shit in NYC back in the days… it kind of feels like an American Psycho for Toddlers or something like that…

[auntieknickers · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Well, the five stars are what I thought when I was 12. I'm not sure I've read it again since I was 21 or so and I wonder what I'd think now. For instance, I recently read a reference to homosexual concerns in this novel, and I know that went right over my head when I was 12. I think this is definitely a novel people should read sometime between the ages of 12 and 20, not so sure about later.

[drakhir · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Hmm, what's this about, then? A boy spends a weekend in New York after being kicked out of school (again).
He's a teenager, that much is sure. A naive cynic, who thinks the world is hugely messed it - it just kills me - and doesn't know what he wants or wants to do. He finds that almost everyone lets you down, and it's very difficult not to be a phony. But he is a kind and gentle soul, fed up of jocks and phonies, who has a great deal of love in him, and if he can get through this confusing and painful time of life, will be an adult we all would want to know.
I'm not sure if this is coming of age, because I don't think HC does, but there is much to like in him.
ADDITION AFTER INTROSPECTION:
I really do think that if you can only see HC as a whiner, you have missed what this book is all about, and probably your own teenage years as well. Yes he whines. All the time. That is what teens do. HC and all teens who are trying to grow up emotionally have to go through such a stage.
At some point in our lives, if we have an ounce of soul, we realise the world and most people in it are truly messed up. The Catcher in the Rye is about coming to terms (or not) with that.
If your teen years were blissfully smooth and without any introspection and fear/anger at all the senseless crazy stuff that seems to be unrelenting, you are probably a psychopath. I'd rather have a drink with HC than you, any day of the week.

[beabatllori · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have to say, I liked The Catcher in the Rye quite a lot, but I can still see where all the hate comes from. It talks about a phase most of us have gone through in our early teens, that moment when we discover all those social conventions we can't seem to understand or to adjust to, which can lead us to believe that everybody is a phony. I think that's particularly scary because adolescence is a time when people can feel very lonely, and when you believe that everyone around you is faking, it can become impossible for you to establish a real connection with anybody.

So I guess opinions are divided between "Ooooh, I get that, I identify with that kid" and "Yeah, I get that, I've been there, WE ALL HAVE, but people don't have a nervous breakdown, they learn from it and grow up - you self-centered spoiled hypocrite". As for me, I guess I'm kind of in between right now ;) Which is all right I guess - maybe that narrow gray zone is where the truth of this book lies.

[finalcut_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I had to read this in 11th grade. My teacher insisted that she had never had a student who didn't like it. I guess I was her first.

I hated this book. The protagonist drove me crazy. He whined and complained about his life so much I just could not relate to him at all. He was pitiful and his aversion to "phony" people was boring and his fixation on it became redundant as the book went on.

There was nothing I enjoyed about this book.

[cait815 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

What a disappointment. Maybe I'd feel differently if I'd read it back in high school, but this crumby book just annoyed the hell out of me. It really did.

[bzbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I remember reading this in school at some point and not particularly enjoying it. Rereading this in my 30s, I found Holden Caulfield teenage angst annoying but I do enjoy Salinger's writing style.

[thelibraryhag · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Also a book I read in high school. I remember this as a guy's book. I know it is a great book and all, but I just did not get it. I should probably read it again.

[erinjamieson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the perfect book to read when you are 16 years old. I absolutely loved it then. I reread it, and it didn't hold the same power as it did for me the first time. However, if you are wanting to read Nine Stories, Franny and Zooey, Rise High a Roofbeam, Carpenters and Seymour an Introduction-- you obviously must include this in your reads. In Seymour an Introduction you learn more about The Catcher and the Rye as Buddy Glass subtly hints that it was the only novel he wrote, believed to be based off the character Seymour Glass.

[ccookie_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First line:~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~ I am 60 years old and did not read this as a teenager. Perhaps I should have. My son, the Masters in English graduate, tells me that he has never read it because it was not required reading for him in school and it 'must' be read when you are young.As an older adult, I wanted to smack Holden Caulfield! I am sure that it is a testimony to the talents of J. D. Salinger as a writer that he speaks in such a true 'voice' of an angst ridden, rebellious and mentally ill teenager. He is very believable.I did enjoy the whole stream of consciousness that comprised this book and I am glad I read it.(3.5 stars)

[bobbyvavassis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I wouldn't recommend this for anyone over the age of 22. Most adults just wouldn't be able to relate to Holden Caufield. However, for teenagers, this is a must read. Admittedly, Holden is a little emotionally unstable, and he definitely has a lot of problems, but I feel as though he has so many qualities that every teenager should be able to relate to, namely that awkwardness between childhood and adulthood. Holden is afraid to grow up and just wants to return to the comfort and security of his childhood. I know I've experienced this, and I'm going to venture to say that most adolescents have as well. The only case in which I recommend this to an adult is if they're really longing to reminisce about their teenage years, but besides that I think it's just a great book to be read in schools because all teens can relate to it.

[emmee1000 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

With all the publicity following J. D. Salinger's death,, I was motivated to read The Catcher in the Rye. I guess the confusion of being a teenager has not changed a lot over time. What is it they say?...Times change but human nature remains the same. All the time I was reading it, I couldn't stop thinking how shockingly controversial it must have been in the early 1950's. In 2010, you can read it and see through the profanity to the pain and sadness of Holden Caulfield.

[joshualin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

J.D. Salinger created a character that I feel I can relate to in his story, The Catcher in the Rye. His character, Holden Caulfield, was someone I could connect with as a 19 year old college student hoping to go into education. Although he is not the most orthodox person, Holden wants to keep children safe and protect them from the dangers of the world. I could relate to Salinger's character because I know that academically I am not the best student, but there is a major part of me that wants to teach children so that they can live in a positive way. This book was assigned to read in high school and at first I was reluctant to read it. But now, looking back and seeing the whole story, I can appreciate Salinger's writing and the character that he has created. I would definitely recommend this book to other readers.

[annb2013 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When I was 14, Holden made me realize I wasn't alone. I was stunned to discover that most of my friends did not feel the same way and that the one boy that did didn't see it as a sign that we we were destined to be together. I remain surprised -- even today -- at how many people actively dislike this book.

[nicketran · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This novel and Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway are the reasons I’m still madly in love with the English language! The novel is a good one, it hooks me from the very first sentence and I wish it can go on as long as War and Peace and the Bible combined. It begins with Holden telling us about his lousy life, he just got kicked out of Pencey, a prep school, because he flunked a bunch of courses, but not English. Thank God!!! Naturally, he thinks the world is populated by a bunch of phonies and idiots and perverts and naturally, they are all grown-ups; like D.B., his brother, a screenwriter in Hollywood who drives fancy car and all, or his teacher, Mr. Antolini, who’s sensitive as hell and I sort of liked him at the beginning until he tries to molest Holden. Personally, I’m quite interested in what kind of parents Holden has and why they produced such a lousy kid in the first place but Holden doesn’t tell us much, except that they are touchy, and probably pretty sore about him not taking his education seriously. Kids are okay with Holden, though, like Phoebe, his ten-year-old sister. She’s an obsessive writer of some girl detective novel and she wants to run away with him all the time, so do we. As we follow Holden, okay, being dragged around all over New York City by Mr. Salinger’s strange but extremely wonderful prose, we encounter and get terrific laugh out of many amusing scenes and characters. But then, when we reach the end of the novel, we realize that Holden is not some lousy rich kid who flunked out of prep school. He’s the sadness in all of us, the loss of our innocence, the ephemeral of life, the death of people and things we hold most dear to our heart, the catcher in the rye that we all wish to be… I want to tell you more about this enduring classic but I think it’s better if you buy the damn thing and start reading it, for God’s sake!!!

[chrisgomezechavarria · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a spectacular book, worth reading several times every few years. For some reason, every time i read it, i can extract something valuable and new form it! It can be read in a couple of hours, and you end up with Holden´s voice in your head for days. J.D Salinger blames his absence from the spotlight and the movie screen on Holden, and that, for me, makes it even more wonderful!

[garypatella · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Catcher in the Rye is Salinger's worst work. It is the least profound and the least thought-provoking out of everything else he has written. Why this became his most popular is still a mystery to me.So why 3 stars? From the description above, it might seem like I would give less than that. It is quite simple really: amount gained by reading it versus time spent reading it. Although it certainly is Salinger's worst, there is still something to be gained by reading it. The fact that the entire novel can be read in less than 3 hours (perhaps less than 2), means that it is NOT a waste of time to read it. There are far less productive things that a person can do with a couple of hours to spare. For that reason, it gets 3 stars.

[mrsothankful · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very amazing book. Every time I re read it I fall in love with Holden Caulfield and just wonder about his attitude and where he is going to go in life. I really feel like Salinger wrote this book the way people sometimes actually think, and he's really good about picking up on some things that we feel as humans but never express or write down.

[a1abwriter · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Oh how I loved this book, surprisingly enough I've found that everyone whom was questioning their sexuality in high school as was I all came to the same conclusion that Holden was gay or at least "curious". I do think that after a certain age/life experience this book might lose some of its luster; I’d have to re-read it to make sure. This was one of the few (I mean very few) books that my stuffy, old Shakespearean type book loving (Oh did i mention the highlight of her year was when she was in the renaissance fair) gave me that I liked. Im pretty sure she only did that because the school board made her.This book is a Most definitely a must read for everyone of all ages ,everyone and anyone with a soul that has ever question the certainty of their existence, their life, or has ever dared to question instead of just excepting what you have been told as true will love this book