Rating: 
Summary: Still wonderful after all these years.
Review: It has been fortysome years since I read CITR in my high school English class. It was a great read this time as well.In fact, I probably enjoyed more as an adult...perhaps a case of arrested development. In any event, I had many laughs, a few revelations and joy. Strong narration and oh so true to any of us who attended boarding school in the 1950's. From now on Catcher In The Rye will be visited yearly. I should never have stayed away so long. I deprived myself of much reading fun. Holden Caufield is still my role model.
Rating: 
Summary: It is a pleasure to read this book.
Review: It is a pleasure to read this book. Salinger has showed us a fine analysis of the problem with the adolescence and he was so genius to write this story in a style of young people. You read the first side and you can't stop reading it. Isabel Daum
Rating:
Summary: It is a book not intended for the superficial reader.
Review: It is a rareity to find a book as easy to read but hard to drown in as The Catcher in the Rye. You may finish it in an hour but without disecting it, even disembowelling it if you may, you will never get the underlying message that is being conveyed by this gem of a book. One of the beauties of this book lie in the fact that this thorough exposition of the human condition talks to you as the character Phoebe, but in truth shouts at you as Holden Caulfield. Only after putting the book down and immersing yourself in all the details, but at the same time looking at it as a raven would a carcass, from the air, will one truly see the essence of the story. Indeed not meant for the superficial. Even superficially, it can hold its end. Its precious if one gets to finish this book, but it's priceless if one gets its message.
Rating:
Summary: simply perfect
Review: It is a shame that many of the reviews of great literary masterpieces posted at Amazon are by children or adolescents that, sorry, probably lack the life experience and maturity these novels require, yet how anyone (especially youths) cannot relate or find truth, beauty, and insight in Salinger's gem is beyond my comprehension. I once had a philosophy professor who told my class that if someone has never felt alienated, they are probably a moron. This is the quintessential document on teenage angst and alienation. SALINGER, PLEASE PUBLISH YOUR WORK!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: It is a wonderful book.
Review: It is a wonderful book. It shows us that part of us, that is not allowed to see the light. J.D. Salinger has written a book that does not allow you to hide those feelings and emotions.
Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable novel.
Review: It is an enjoyable novel because it is very realistic and I could relate to many things in the novel, but it was very uninteresting.
Rating:
Summary: An American Classic
Review: It is difficult to remember what it was like to read this book for the first time. It is also difficult to imagine a book where each new reading provides so much more illumination into the main character and his personality. I can remember finding Catcher to be funny the first time I read it. I now alternately find Holden to be walking a fine line between witty sarcasm and dangerous cynicism. He is funny, there is no way around that, but his belittling nature also causes him to dismiss much from his life that may not be perfect, but should be included. There is nothing that he, in the end, does not dismiss as being phony, whether it is the nuns with whom he shares a cup of coffee, the teacher at the end who most likely was just trying to help, the Egyptian wing of the museum, Pheobe's school...everything. As soon as one little detail slips in which is not completely on track with what he is thinking whatever it is he is contemplating becomes useless, phony, not worth dealing with. His humor is sharp and witty and I often laugh out loud while reading, but it is also an easy way for him to detach himself from a world which he no longer feels he belongs in, or wants to belong in. I can remember finding the ending ambiguous the first time I read it. I now see it as the only way it could end, with Holden finding happiness watching his sister Pheobe going forever in circles, and being able to pretend that that is never going to change. She is the one thing in his life which he still deems worthy of existence, and placing her on a merry-go-round is his best attempt to keep her there. Things change and grow and move on, but Holden refuses to accept this and is yearning to stop things forever where they are, to go back to when D.B. was a writer full of dreams and Allie was still alive. He mentions once how he used to take field trips to the museum, but how it was never the same and that takes something away from it. Even if the exhibit was the same, YOU would be different, simply by having traveled a bit farther in life, and this is what Holden is incapable of dealing with. The ending is Holden trying to keep the one thing in his life he still truly loves exactly the way she is. I can remember finding Holden's journey to be a bit all over the place. I now can see that there is not a single detail which Salinger does not use to illuminate Holden. On Holden's last night at school everything is covered with snow. He stands there holding a snowball looking for something to throw it at, but he can not bring himself to throw his snowball and disturb a fire hydrant or a park bench. Everything is peaceful under the snow and Holden can not bring himself to alter this just as he can not handle a world that keeps changing. Or there is Holden's history class, which he is failing. The only topic he is remotely interested in is the Egyptians and their process of mummification. The only thing he cares about is how to preserve things just as they are. I can remember enjoying this book the first time I read it. But I had no idea that with each subsequent reading I would find more and more to enjoy, and more and more evidence of Salinger's genius.
Rating:
Summary: Unusal piece of literature
Review: It is difficult to understand what the message should be. But it is only once you put the book away that you understand what it is about. It shows life - not only of a teenager boy - from an unusual perspective. Those thougths does not fit to the correct social patterns we would love to see. And there is no moral at the end which calms down our indignation. It is up to us to find our own insights.
This is what I appreciate, a book who leaves it up to its reader to draw her/his own conclusions.
Rating:
Summary: A pure soul in world of phonies...
Review: It is important to keep our mind open to what great writers, such as J. D. Salinger have to say to us. The book its not just a three day adventure of a confused adolescent, it is a saga of a soul, a look at how our society is, and how we have to somehow give up part of we are in order to "blend in." It is also about the loss of innocence in the process of becoming part of this society where the phony relations always prevail. "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" (pg87). Sounds familiar? Holden has in a certain (crazy) way, a clear view of the world. He doesn't like the world he sees, neither wants to take part in it - and that is his big struggle. It is important to pay attention to the message in between the lines. Just not refuse the "maybe inappropriate" comments of the protagonist; many of them, if you think about, are perhaps the clear picture underneath superficial appearances... It is no doubt a great book and must read. It will make you laugh, it will make you think, and you'll miss Holden the second you put the book down!
Rating:
Summary: I do believe that we're all missing the point
Review: It is pointless to try to describe this book. It is something that is not human, but holy.
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