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Summary: Immensely human
Review: Sometimes people forget that literature is really about reminding us what is it like to be human - to succumb to feelings of sadness & hopelessness & futility, to want to escape, to want to love & protect, the way we contradict ourselves etc. This is partly why I read, to discover parts of myself in others & know I am not isolated. Catcher in the Rye was the first novel that really opened up literature for me. It struck me totally (I remember opening it up to scan the first page or so - something I usually do - & not looking back up until about ten chapters later). Holden Caulfield is a very real character, for me immediately identifiable. For months after reading the book his voice floated around my head. It tapped into my own feelings & thoughts at the time with what we are presented with daily, expected to grow up into & be a part of with little thought (it sounds so cliched, but it's true!) I mean, I read this more than forty years after it was published (3-4 years ago), & it is a meandering, conversational, slang-filled book, but it still has not worn much at all. I think it is one of the great novels of the 21st century. (What's this stuff about it being full of profanity? get a grip, there's only one f-word in it & even that's blanked out, talk about living in a dreamworld if you think youth don't swear in casual conversation - even by 1940/50s standards). I think in parts it is extremely funny - I love the bit where Holden & Sally Hayes go ice-skating & he descibes how ridiculous they look. Heehee.
Rating: 
Summary: Am I missing something?
Review: Sorry, but I found this book to be rather boring and repetitive. I did not like the character Holden, and thought he should grow up.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent read for any parent, child, or teenager.
Review: Still CURRENT! After you read this you'll wonder what in the life of a teenager has really changed from the 50's to the 90's. It reads like teenager's act and speak in today's schools and in society. The arrogant "I know everything" attitude is masterfully detailed by Salinger. The sex, alcohol, and "don't give a damn" attitude of Holden is really the reality of just about every teenager, even today. That is what makes Salinger's book a classic. Holden is someone we either were or someone we knew at some point in our lives. We ALL sympathize with Holden, yet at the same time we say to ourselves, "what the hell is this kid thinking?" Yet, we all know exactly what he is thinking, even if we don't like to admit it! If you open your mind and your heart to Holden Caulfield, you are really opening up to what went on in yourself as a teenager and what is going on in the mind of your teenagers! Caulfield reminds me of the character, Joe Green, a troubled soul on a quest to understand his past in Steiger's new master piece, 'Alien Rapture', which has a real page turning plot. I highly endorse buying this book. It is a must read!
Rating:
Summary: An excellent read for any parent, child, or teenager.
Review: Still CURRENT! After you read this you'll wonder what in the life of a teenager has really changed from the 50's to the 90's. It reads like teenager's act and speak in today's schools and in society. The arrogant "I know everything" attitude is masterfully detailed by Salinger. The sex, alcohol, and "don't give a damn" attitude of Holden is really the reality of just about every teenager, even today. That is what makes Salinger's book a classic. Holden is someone we either were or someone we knew at some point in our lives. We ALL sympathize with Holden, yet at the same time we say to ourselves, "what the hell is this kid thinking?" Yet, we all know exactly what he is thinking, even if we don't like to admit it! If you open your mind and your heart to Holden Caulfield, you are really opening up to what went on in yourself as a teenager and what is going on in the mind of your teenagers! Caulfield reminds me of the character, Joe Green, a troubled soul on a quest to understand his past in Steiger's new master piece, Alien Rapture. I highly endorse buying this book. It is a must read!
Rating:
Summary: Nevermind?
Review: Still the ultimate piece of writing on angst, Jerome DavidSalinger's Catcher In The Rye does not cease to amaze - nearlyfifty years (!) after its publication. It is still the yardstick for any book dealing with the falsehood of Western civilisation, the passage from teen spirit to an adulthood for which there are no ideals or idols left. It surely is no coincidence that it still serves as a device for superlatives, when being used as reference point for novels such as Douglas Coupland's Generation X (in Cosmopolitan), Bret Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero (in The Observer), Alexander Stuart's The War Zone (in London's Time-Out), Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City (in Playboy), Scott Bradfield's History Of Luminous Motion, Trey Ellis' Home Repairs, Iain Banks' Wasp Factory etc etc. Fortunately, Salinger coped better with the fame and fuss than Kurt Cobain. Unfortunately it sickened him into not publishing much at all for decades.
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Summary: It was the best book I've ever read.
Review: Sure, I'm only a teenager, but I honestly stopped reading for awhile. I didn't find it fun anymore. Then my English teacher showed this book to me, and I loved it. I couldn't put it down. My mom would come in my room at midnight wondering why I was still awake, but all I could say was, "I'm reading the best book I have ever read in all of my life." I could really relate to his growing up and his problems. J.D. Salinger is a great author and I have continued to read his books that never leave me hungry for more.
Rating: 
Summary: Why Cliff Notes suck...
Review: Take one of the best books written, the book that every high schooler should read if they want to survive high school intact and make it into some godawful teacher's edition full of trivial insights and bad summations and you got Cliff Notes. Cliff Notes, the enemy of all literature---but nice if you gotta read something dull like Moby Dick---doesn't work when the main focus of the book in question is the perspective of the narrator and what he sees along the way. All the fun of Holden Caulfield's sarcastic diatribe against the world is broken into "the main character doesn't seem to fit in" written in several different ways. If you want to read the Cliff Notes edition of a work you better be reading something dull like Ivanhoe, because cool books such as the Catcher in the Rye can only be read as is..
Rating:
Summary: good
Review: Talk about a character. Holden is great. It's not often that you feel such a strong connection with a character that isn't much like yourself, or so it was with me. It's pretty high in the standings for best book ever. You must read this
Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly overrated.
Review: Teenage angst at its peak, told in a way that did not make me sympathize with the main character. The writing was just as confused as the character's mind, which was probably the intent, but did not enhance my understanding of the point of the book. Which, by the way, I never did -- unless the point was only to get a murky feel for what goes on in a teenager's mind. I do not understand the cult following this book has achieved.
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Summary: Holden Caulfield is the embodiment of teenage rebellion.
Review: Teenage rebellion is a part of every American's life, whether in thought, idea, or action. J.D. Salinger's character of Holden Caulfield has managed to embody the spirit of the teen rebel. Many of us have withheld personal information from others for fear of our parents. Many people have been disgusted with all the phonies of the world, of people who are not true to themselves. And many of us are, like Holden, guilty of being a phony ourselves. Holden Caulfield is the conflicted and confused person we all are or were at one time of another. The person who acts like nothing bothers them or that they know the ways of the world, when really we've only just began to explore the world. I read this book when I was sixteen and related to every word written. Four years later, I still relate.
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