Catcher in the Rye

"...I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around--nobody big, I mean--except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff--I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy."

Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

originally published July 1951 by Little, Brown

distinctions

national book award finalist, fiction, 1952
new york times bestseller, fiction, 1951
multiple "top 100" lists, including "most frequently challenged"

first words

"If you really want to hear all 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, if you want to know the truth."

the premise

Holden Caulfield leaves his troubled academic career at a prestigious prep school and wanders around New York City for several days, trying to come to terms with losses in his life.

my thoughts

When I read this book in high school, I loved it.  I loved how real Holden was, and how perceptively he saw through the "phoniness" around him, how he recoiled from it and sought to protect the innocent.  So when my online book group chose it for our February read (yes, I'm more than a little behind here...), I was excited for an excuse to revisit this novel.

In some ways, I was disappointed.  Holden was every bit as real, but from my adult perspective, he was essentially a pathetic, emotionally disturbed kid, more to be pitied than admired.  I had to take his story in small doses because the tone and torrent of his narration was oppressive.  Of course, this is a mark of the genius of the author: Salinger has created a character whose narration has a visceral affect on the reader, a character whose voice is authentic beyond reproach.

Along with my changed perspective of Holden came an unexpected insight: I saw, as I hadn't seen in high school, that this novel isn't so much a diatribe against phoniness as it is a psychological grapple with profound loss, including the loss of innocence that growing up requires.  I also realized that, in a poignant way, this novel is essentially about family.

While I can't list Catcher in the Rye among my favorites, and I probably won't read it a third time, I am thoroughly impressed by the skill of the author, the way he creates such a real narrator, the way that narrator slowly but inevitably descends deeper into mental illness.  Perhaps for me the crowning achievement lies in the images Salinger pulls out at just the right moment, images that strike to the quick and linger in the mind, growing in import as the story progresses.

others' thoughts

Book Nut
The Book Nest
The Golden Road to Samarqand

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