The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger - Book Review
Title: The Catcher in the Rye
Author: J. D. Salinger
Publisher: Little, Brown
Publish Date: July 16, 1951
Rating: 4.5/5
Summary: Holden Caulfield is a sixteen-year-old boy who just got kicked out of his private school due to bad grades and failing performance. Holden, reluctant to break the news that he got expelled from yet another school and thus having nowhere to go, just roams around New York for two days before breaking the bad news to his parents at home. The entire book is Holden's narration of what happened during those two days-- some things, but nothing exciting. However, Holden is a severely angsty teenager and seems to be very disillusioned and jaded about the world.
*This book review contains spoilers for this book. If you still want to read the review, go ahead. However, I strongly recommend you to read this book before reading my review.
I found about fifteen copies of this book in my English teacher's bookshelf, and I knew this book was famous for being "an angry book" (a friend of mine told me), so I decided I'd try reading about a catcher, some rye, and some anger. I couldn't read the blurb though, because there was none-- the front and back cover were identical (except the price tag). I started reading expecting a fun little story with deep themes and maybe a little anger. Little did I know, all the book contained was frustration and cynicism about the entire world-- but t
There isn't much to say about the plot of this book because there isn't really one. Holden goes to a hotel (he needs somewhere to sleep after all) and rides around in taxicabs to go to parks and bars and record shops and such, and all throughout his thoughts are narrated through the page. His thoughts are mostly about the world around him and how it all seems phony, people pretending to think what they aren't thinking and pretending to be genuine when they aren't being genuine and pretending to be who they aren't at all. This word -phony- crops up a LOT in this book, and it's just because Holden is disillusioned and voluntarily spirals further into that cynicism, sarcasm, jadedness, anger, frustration, whatever you want to call it you know what I mean.
"The Navy guy and I told each other we were glad to've met each other. Which always kills me. I'm always saying "Glad to've met you" to somebody I'm not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though." - here's an example of the "phoniness" Holden detests in society.
ok, um you probably don't know what I mean, so I have a lot to say but I'll try to address each of my thoughts one by one in a cohesive manner.
Well first of all, people on the Internet seem to have really mixed reviews about this book. Some despise it, some adore it. However, the reason people hate this book so much is because of two primary reasons: one, they cannot stand the negativity and insufferability of Holden Caulfield, or two, they cannot stand the plotless boringness of the book. I do agree that Holden can seem rude and insufferable, and there's no real plot to the story, but in my view that was the purpose of the story. Holden was meant to represent the relatable Angsty Moody Teenager, and he did it quite well. The insufferability and pessimism characterizes many teens struggling to adjust from child to adult, struggling to meet the adult expectations placed on them. I'm not saying every teenager is like this, but Holden here represents just such a person, albeit the pessimism stretched to a severe degree. Also, the plotlessness of the book serves well to depict how Holden sees phoniness in just about everything, as Holden wandering around the city well furthers his point that wherever he goes, whatever he tries to do, he is always frustrated and discouraged and let down by the city and the society.
Another criticism I see sometimes is about how a lot of this book seems like filler, like Holden would be describing his situation and just get reminded of something else and start elaborating on some memory all of a sudden. There actually are a fair number of these digressions throughout the book, but I actually liked this kind of prose, where Holden- while narrating the story- slips into something else he's been thinking about. It makes the book feel more like the words on the page are what Holden's actually thinking at the moment, somehow giving a feeling I'm reading his mind. One might retort that such logic makes it so that basically all third person omniscient perspectives or first person perspectives count as mind reading, and sure, they might, but this particular book feels like Holden's letting his thoughts flow freely onto the page instead of an author restricting the thoughts to be focused on the plot. Such prose of free-flowing thought is also only made possible by Holden's aimless wandering-- it gives him time to think for a long time for whatever he wants to think about, perfectly expressed in the pages.
Now to talk about the actual subject matter of the story, I think Holden's thoughts and worldview that everything is phony and meaningless and non-genuine and fake is something anyone can have, given that they think for long enough. Lots and lots of elaboration and thought about the same thing can make anything seem meaningless and phony. Then, once you see phoniness in one thing, it's easier to make the connection to meaninglessness and phoniness for just about anything. However, it's not as bad as Holden's case and attitude. I think Holden's intentionally falling deeper into this endless chasm of thinking (maybe realizing) that the world's not as good as he thought it was, that the world's not as fun as he thought it was, searching this world for satisfaction and failing, but never thinking to look above and beyond the world. I think Holden's already deep in the fall Mr. Antolini talks about in this excerpt--
"This fall I think you're riding for--it's a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn't permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling. The whole arrangement's designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn't supply them with. Or they thought their own environment couldn't supply them with. So they gave up looking. They gave it up before they ever really even got started." - Mr. Antolini
Holden's already in the fall and neither he nor Mr. Antolini knows it. Mr. Antolini, thinking Holden's on the verge of the fall, offers words of wisdom to pull him away, but Holden doesn't respond to that as well and loses interest in the conversation, and it's because he's falling already. So those words, while Holden does understand them, have no impact or effect on him. Holden's voluntarily choosing to focus and meditate on the fakeness of the world so much, it's become almost his entire identity-- maybe that's why Holden is shown as a flat character most of the time.
But there's one person Holden's genuine with and one dream Holden genuinely has-- Phoebe, his little sister, and his dream of being the catcher in the rye. Phoebe's basically the only person Holden cares about, and this is most likely because Phoebe is the only significant child mentioned in the book. Holden knows Phoebe's not getting phony anytime soon, which is why he likes her so much. As for Holden's dream of being the catcher in the rye, I think it's because Holden is saving children from going over the cliff into the dark abyss of phoniness. The children are still innocent, and Holden wants to keep them from the letdowns of the real world.
Lastly, in regard to Holden's view of the world yet again, I want to respond to him with a quote from C. S. Lewis: "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud."
See, Holden? If you think everything is phony and nothing feels genuine enough, it doesn't prove the universe is a fraud. Maybe you were just made for another world.
I would maybe recommend this book for grade 8 and up, it contains a little bit of mature content and themes of morality, and people either hate this book or rate it as a pretty okay book. I'd say it's quite good to read keeping the themes in mind, but it's not the best for anybody looking for a fun/exciting book.
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