Catcher in the Rye

Rating:
Summary: Holden, You Are Great !
Review: I've read this book for the second time now (The first time in German and the second time in English; the original version is much better.), and I must say that it's great. The book is written so cool and easy-to-read. And although the book is nearly 50 years old it still fits for today. It acts about a boy called Holden Caulfield who gets expelled from Pencey. He goes to New York city instead of going home, and lives there alone for a few days. While you are reading the book you become Holden Caulfield. When he thinks about whether he is "yellow" or not, you feel as if you were Holden yourself. And finally the book is worth reading because of Holden's character. He is such an interesting and loveable person. All in all I have to say that you must read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Captures true feelings of coming of age
Review: I've read this book many times over the years, from my first encounter in high school, to the most recent times, discussing it with my high-school children as they read it for the first time. Each time I read it, I'm struck more deeply by how truly it captures the rebellion, exhilaration, worry, fear, and rootless wandering which faced or faces us all as we journey from youth to adulthood. The language is crisp, funny, never lags. Holden Caulfield's adventures catch and keep our interest, and we care what happens to him as we accompany him through his wanderings, but the thing that strikes me after all these years is how deeply JD Salinger captured the feelings that Holden was living with each day: What happens to those ducks in winter, what happens to us all as our warm and safe childhood lives slowly become the cold, hard, unyielding lives of adulthood, and who is there to catch us as we pass through the rye. Does anyone look out for us any more? Are we alone, on our own? A beautiful, evocative book, for teenagers, adults, or parents helping their own teenagers navigate this remarkable journey.

Rating:
Summary: I still find sides of Holden that I hadn't seen previously
Review: I've read this book more times than I can count. And each time I fall in love with Holden's humanity, no matter how cynical and alone he may seem. Salinger has created in Holden a teenage persona that despite the fifty-some years that have passed since his conception, remains cogent and REAL.

Rating:
Summary: I Am Holden
Review: I've read this book several times in my life. It's a book that I can relate to in one way or the other each time I read it. It's about a boy who doesn't feel like he fits in with the rest of society. Readers can watch his mental developement (and breakdown), and it goes to show how complex of a character Holden can be. This is the least Phony book I've ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Looking for discussion
Review: I've read this book several years ago. I must say that I really bonded with it. In my oppinion, it is not necessary to look for a moral or a point in an outstanding piece of literature. All that is really necessary is a keen and refined ability to feel. The book communicates everything by itself. One only needs to carefully listen.

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT!
Review: I've read this book three times in the last five months. I can't get enough of it. If there's anyone in the world I can relate to it's the protaganist, Holden Caulfield.

Rating:
Summary: Top Five
Review: I've read this three tomes. Definitely a classic. In my mind ione of the top five books of the modern era. Brash and honest, Holden Caufield is a young man every old man should look up to. He sizes up his life and finds out what most people don't realize until its all over. Everyone must read this. The sooner the better.

Rating:
Summary: I caught catcher fever
Review: I've read two books in my 22 years. One "Where the red fern grows" sometime in the 5th grade and (after weeks of hearing my mother lament on how I had never read the book and how the boy was just like me) "catcher in the rye" on the heels on my graduation. I figure most people either hate or love it. All I know is I spent this long is school and the whole time not once did I feel enlightened...until I read catcher in the rye.

Rating:
Summary: not only a good read, a brilliant re-read
Review: i've reviewed this book before, in the summer of 98. i've reread this book a few times and i love it. i really can relate to Holden especially since i have also been clinically depressed. This novel is great because it combines humor with more important themes like death and the difficult transition into adulthood. i love the scene where Holden's old teacher can chuck his exam paper on the bed. also Ackley adds humor with all his crumby habits. i really don't understand why some people hate it, i guess it's a question of taste.

Rating:
Summary: A People Shooting Hat
Review: I've spent the past half hour at work reading the reviews of "The Catcher in the Rye" <blowing UPenns money>. I first read this book a few years back when I was 16 years old. It was assigned to us for an English class. I suppose that's how most teenagers get their first glimpse of Holden Caulfield. Most of the reviews have already covered what I consider to be some of the more critical themes within the novel. However, I wanted to point out a portion of a rather recent movie that deals eloquently and poignantly with the major theme of emotional paralysis that Salinger so lucidly portrays by way of Holden. "Six Degrees of Separation", a movie that stars Stockard Channing, Will Smith, and Donald Sutherland, contains an incredibly articulate monologue related to the aforementioned theme. It's one of the most artfully done movie scenes I think I've ever viewed. I urge you ALL to rent this movie <in addition to the scene related to Catcher, it is a fantastic film>.

Furthermore, I wanted to commend Salinger on one of the most accurate and forthright portrayals of a clinically depressed teenager I have ever encountered within all of literature. The beauty of this novel, for me, was the inclusion of all of Holden's faults w/o apologies. Finally, when we look at adolescents today and recognize the same fear, foibles, insecurities, and hubris that we see in Holden I think it behooves us to realize that all of these perceived character flaws are without premeditation and more so are the result of a naivete that is probably the closest thing we have to innocense in society today. The quality of the reviews of this book is truly a testament to the universality of the adolescent experience.