Title: The Catcher in the Rye Author: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)
First Published: 1951
My Edition: Little, Brown Books (seen at left)
Pages: 214
Other Works Include: Nine Stories (1953), Franny and Zooey (1961), Raise High the Roof Beam (1963)
This is another re-read for me. Salinger's novel was required reading as part of my high school's eleventh grade curriculum. Had I not read it then, I doubt I ever would have. Just knowing what it is about wouldn't have appealed to me then.
But I am glad we read it. As a high schooler, I really loved the angsty Holden Caufield. I related to him and found a lot of similarities between how he viewed the world and how I viewed it. However, I was one of a few students in my class that liked the novel when we finished it. A lot of my classmates found Holden to be whiny and annoying.
I have heard that when people who loved this novel as a teenager re-read it at an older age, they hate it. I hope that doesn't happen, since I have always considered this one of my "favorites."
In any case, I am looking forward to my second dabble into Salinger. I own a copy of Franny and Zooey, but haven't read it.
I just re-read this book a couple of weeks ago to read it with my students, and I liked it more now. However, you are the first person I've actually heard of enjoying it when you were in high school. I didn't read it for school, I read it because John Green was doing a sort of book group for it on YouTube. Either way, I enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteIronically, I've read this twice - in 2001 and then again back in February, and both times it made no impression on me at all. I didn't remember a word from my 2001 read, and I barely remember the 2010 reread already...
ReplyDeleteI can definitely see not loving this if I re-read it when I'm older. I think that part of its allure is that adults don't "understand" what he's going through. I guess I'll have to see in a decade or so.
ReplyDeleteI would highly recommend both Franny and Zooey and Salinger's Nine Stories. I loved both books even more than Catcher.
I was one who disliked it upon rereading, but I liked it the first two times I read it (ages 16 and 20).
ReplyDeleteThis one's on my 120 list. I hear it's really good?
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what it's about, but I kind of like not knowing until I open the book. :-)
I didn't read this book till I was an adult and I hated it. I read it because I was teaching troubled youth in a boarding school and it was a favorite of almost every boy there. So even though I didn't like it, I knew it had worth if it could get boys like that to enjoy reading. It really just wasn't for me.
ReplyDeleteI didn't read Catcher in the Rye in high school (somehow managed to escape that), but decided I had to remedy holes in my reading a few years ago. I appreciated it. It was a quick read. I guess I understood why some people would have enjoyed it. But I didn't really like it. Maybe it's partially because I was well out of my angsty teens by the time I read it?
ReplyDeleteTo read this book, you need to be realistic, and empathetic.
ReplyDelete