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Summary: Salinger's work timeless
Review: JD Salinger's work, The Catcher in the Rye, is a timeless tale that applies to life today as well as it did when he wrote it. The main character, Holden, is a young man with whom many young people can relate today.
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Summary: it's The Book
Review: JD's book connects with people who knew how it was to be young. It shows just how the way of life in any generation don't really change. They take on different forms, modified to suit the current time and space, but basically they're pretty much the same. This book has influenced me in the way I view life in general. It was fun and moving. I wish every teenager gets to read it.
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Summary: why it might be banned...
Review: JD. Salinger has written the personality and language of an animal few humans try to know, the seventeen year old human male. This was reality in its greatest show, a masterpiece by all means. I hated it. I was supposed to hate it because I'm a female, middle aged woman with high propriety. Sure, the language in the book bothered me; it was supposed to. But I saw that its intent was to explain a boy with a tough facade. Later in the book, on page 157, the facade melts when the boy recalls the happy days of childhood and going to the Museum of Natural History with Phoebe. The "damns" almost disappear. As far as censorship, it would be a terrible shame if this book were to be censored. No other book that I know has ever captured the tone, vernacular, and character of the most vulnerable person of our modern society, the 17 year old boy. I would highly recommend this book to parents, educators, and young wives. It is wonderful, but awful
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Summary: The catcher in the Rye, jonas' opinion
Review: Jonas' opinion of "The Catcher in the Rye", by Jerome David Salinger.
I find it a very good novel because it learns the reader about American schools and the reader is exposed to the American tradition. The main character, Holden Caulfield, is a very good frog because he can mislead everybody he wants to (the three women around thirty in the hotel at New York, for instance). Holden is very independent of people and he can take care of himself very well. I admire him because he has the guts to kid with Stradlater (I would never have challenged that tough guy). This book has a few tiny little bad points: it has to many chapters, to many characters and it's typed so small that's even difficult to read if your eyes are all right. There's more but this you will hear in class.My greetings to you, Mr. Geerinckx, Your pupil of 6MWb, J.Duyck
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Summary: Hardly "great", this is a boring, cynical diatribe
Review: Judging from most of the other reviews listed here, the legions of hopelessly disaffected and jaded among us found this to be a most engrossing novel. I fear that those few who have managed to mature out of their self-righteous and idealistic teenage years will find this to be a monotonous, uneventful narrative that is wanting in meaning or purpose. While the book may serve as a reasonably good study of the cynical adolescent mind, that is its limit. With each page I expected some gleam of insight--or at least a plot twist--to emerge out of the confused, miserable rant, but instead I was dragged reluctantly through to the end of the novel without being offered even a shred of intellectual interest. If you're seeking great American literature, stick to Hemingway or Fitzgerald.
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Summary: Captures a youth's mind
Review: Just like everyone else, I read this book in high school and then again several years later (when I was 22). I didn't have much interest in reviewing this book until I read some of the other comments. While reading Catcher, the book never came across as controversial or "vulgar" to me, and I am shocked that anyone would interpret it as such. Such opinions (granted, they were few) are more of a comment on the antiquated opinions and values of their authors, rather than the content of this classic novel. One need only look at how many young kids (anywhere from 12-18) have fallen in love with the book; whose passion for reading, and thus learning and expanding their young minds, has been triggered by Salinger. What a gift to give a child. Maybe it was because I thought I was "too cool" to enjoy a school assignment, or maybe I was just a dumb acne-faced kid, but I never embraced any book in such a way. But I feel as though I missed out on an intimate experience with literature that took some 5 years later to achieve. The point is, in an age where your kids learn more from MTV than from you, consider yourself lucky that Catcher in the Rye finds its way into their minds.
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Summary: Good Read
Review: Just to chime in. It's a good read. I think it's important WHEN you read this book. I read it when I was about the same age as the main character and liked it because it rang true and because I could sympathize with the guy.
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Summary: The Three Days of Holden
Review: Knowing he will soon be expelled from prep school, Holden Caufield decides to leave early. His next three days are spent in New York City where he dwells on his emotional problems and his cynicism toward life. This book is unlike any other I have had the chance to read. J.D. Salinger is able to write this book through the mind of a 16-year-old boy in 1945. What is unique about his writing is that I can relate to the character's feelings in 2001. Salinger is an extraordinary writer. I felt as though I was a cynical young man in lonely and bustling New York City. I feel his emotional problems that are induced by the recollection of his dead brother and the younger sister at home he misses and loves. This passage from the book shows the problems he had with the death of his brother, "I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it." The way Holden describes it, he makes it sound like nothing, but you know that it is a serious problem. Laughter is inspired by Holden's description of his past roommates and there habits. Some whistle, some are slobs. No matter what Holdens emotions encompass, they are always easy for me to relate with. Salinger doesn't focus on imagery much, and little symbolism is used. Salinger uses figurative language to draw the reader into Holden's world. This is an excellent book for teenagers to read. In researching the book, I found that it has been pulled from the curriculum of several schools due to the language used in the book. The book was written in 1945 and uses several slang terms that would be heard in that decade. This is the only aspect of Salinger's writing that I found uninteresting. Terms like, "chewing the fat," and "sonuvabitch," are outdated and don't appeal to me. Due to the emotional content of this book, I feel anyone can relate to the problems of Holden Caufield. I enjoyed the book and I thank Mr. Salinger for writing it.
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Summary: The Best Book Ever Written!!
Review: Kudos to the 16-year old reviewer in San Fransisco! I, too, read CATCHER IN THE RYE as a 16-years old in an honors English class in high school. To be perfectly honest, the reason I read it at first was because my teacher said it was still banned in many parts of the country, so I wanted to see what I was missing (the best thing you can do for book sales is to ban it!). The book ended up affecting me more than I imagined! Hypocrites are everywhere, and anyone who doesn't want to believe it can live in a cave. I am now a 28-year old grad student halfway to my MA in English and have read this book literally 100s of times and can quote some of it ver batim!
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Summary: Could you whine just a little more?
Review: Let me set it straight, if anyone comes to a problem in life, SOLVE IT, DONT B*TCH ABOUT IT. If you can understand that much, and can agree, this book is NOT for you.
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