Catcher in the Rye

Rating:
Summary: This book is great but does have a few boring parts
Review: The Catcher and the rye is a really good book it's very interesting at first but then it starts getting boring. Then it gets better. This is a great book to read it makes you feel what Holden is feeling because it describes his fellings so well. I will warn you that some parts our pretty dull because it stresses the point to far quite a bit.

Rating:
Summary: Ehhhh, it was alright
Review: The Catcher and the Rye

The book The Catcher and the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a very interesting novel. In his unique writing style, Salinger jumps from subject to subject to subject before returning to the original topic at hand. This book basically portrays a chunk of a young man's life as he gets kicked out of a private high school called Pencey. He slowly leaves campus for home without trying to be too depressed. Holden Caulfield, as the character is named, is set in his way of thinking and its very abstract at that. The book takes you on these small adventures and you can tell that they are exaggerated. He thinks about things too much, and his mind is especially stuck on women. He doesn't like his parents much but has three siblings that he gets along with. He's always reminiscing things he's done or people he used to know, again particularly the females. He doesn't consider himself smart but he sure talks like he does. I know he's not preaching, he's just talking to people who care to listen. I liked the book to start, but it got old pretty fast.

Rating:
Summary: The Catcher in the Rye
Review: The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)

I can't really say I liked this book, but I also disliked it. There isn't really a story in it. Just a boy, who is kicked out in his school. But in a few days the Christmas vacation starts. So he decided not to go home till then. In the book he's telling what he's doing this time. The book is quite funny. For example: he way he's asking what will happen with ducks in the winter. Normal people wouldn't even think about it.
I don't like Holden very much. He seems to me very labile. And he gets so easy depressed; almost everything makes him depressed. He is just pathetic. He doesn't really believe in something, he has no butt in his life. He isn't motivated to do something with it, to make something of his life. I find him a bit a loser.
There is just not really happening something in this book.
It was quite amusing to read it, but at the end it was a bit boring. I would have like it more when he came home and told something about the confrontation with his parents.
But roughly you can say it wasn't too bad.

Rating:
Summary: The Catcher in the Rye
Review: The Catcher in the Rye / J.D. Salinger; My opinion.

I have not much to say about this book, only that I didn't like it very much.

I think it's too long-winded and dull. I really got bored of it. The central figure, Holden Caulfield, talks to much about stupid details, and when he's telling us something, he begins to talk about something else in the middle of his story. He's to busy with all the stupid toughts he has, and that really irritates me. An other thing that bores me, is that Holden uses some expletives like "boy", "I mean ...", ...

I also think that this book is ridiculous because, if you have read it and you will write the story down, it's about one page long without all those useless, stupid details.

I find the book also to "difficult"; the story is not difficult to understand, neither are the words that are used in the book, but it's not easy to follow when the narrator (who is Holden) changes the subject constantly. I mean that he begins to talk about something, and when he uses someones name for example, he begins to describe this person immediatly. When he has finished describing this person (for example two pages later), he begins again talking about the first subject. At the time that he's there again, you have already forgotten the subject, and you have to read the whole passage again to understand what he's saying.

This is all I have to say about the book, I have no good words for it, and I am glad it's finished now.

Rating:
Summary: The Catcher In The Rye
Review: The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye was a enjoyable book. The book is told by Holden Caulfield and the days before his Christmas vacation break. He is a troubled boy with depression problems that will be visible encounter as the book is told by him. The part I thought was interesting is how a person can exclude themselves from the world and become depressed. Holden attended Pencey Prep, and all boys' school. This would be the fourth school he attended and got kicked out of or chose to leave. I believe if he is already on the fourth school, something must be wrong. I feel bad that this keeps happening to him, but it is also his fault for allowing it to happen. Holden is now being kicked out of Pencey Prep, he didn't apply himself so his grades where really poor and they asked him to leave the prep school. The major problem that he has with this world is that he thinks that everyone is phoniness. I think he is also phony because there is a guy Ackley who he can't stand but he still talks to and is kind of nice to. Holden decides to leave early from Pencey before Christmas break starts. He and his room mate got in a big fight over a girl. Holden gathers all of his belonging and catches a train to New York City where his family lives. He doesn't go home to his families' apartment. He decides to spend two days consuming alcohol and loneliness in New York. I think he should have gone home to get help from his family other then getting drunk and not solving any of his real problems. His problems were still there when he became sober the next morning. Also if he went home he wouldn't be lonely because he would have his little sister and his parents there with him. He decides once his money is gone, nothing can get any worst so he goes back home to his parent's apartment and visit his sister Phoebe. She seems to be the only person he is able to communicate with in the entire book. After talking to Phoebe he feels better and decides to see an older teacher of his before his parents get home. He visits with Mr. Antolini thinking that it would make him better but really he leaves his house feeling more depressed. He doesn't understand how hid world is so full of phoniness and thinks it is such a horrible place to grow up in. I feel bad for him because he needs help, his world can be bad but with his problem it is making it so much worst and harder for him to live in. He all the sudden decides that he is going to move West. The first person he thinks about telling first is Phoebe, he meets her in the park and watchers her with fright as she plays. Holden decides that there can be no catcher, that all you can do is hope kids develop in this harsh world on their own. Holden is now being hospitalized and recovering from his illness that had taken over him. I hope he comes out seeing the world differently and isn't as lonely, and is able to make a direction for himself. I thoroughly liked this book. It wasn't a happy cheerful book but you got to see inside someone with an illness of this kind. There are so many people suffering with this disease and it is so hard to understand how this could happen to a person but it occurs everyday.

Rating:
Summary: good book for teenagers
Review: The Catcher In the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a book about a teenager in search of himself. Because he does not know who he is, Holden Caulfield, the main character, goes on a quest to try to turn his life around because the life that he has been leading is not the one he wants. Holden knows who he doesn't want to be so he uses that knowledge as a guide on his quest. He doesn't want to take responsibility for himself because he is not ready to deal with the world. In particular, his descision to leave Pency early and the conversation he has at the end of the book are examples of this quest and how it never ends. Holden's quest begins when he is "given the axe" from his boarding school. Right before he leaves he gets in a fistfight with his roommate because, "Stradlater was a dirty stupid sonofabitch of a moron." This fight was the spark that lit the fire for Holden because he realized that he wasn't happy and that he was surrounded by phonies which is the one thing that he cannot stand. Holden decided to leave soon after this for two reasons, so that he can get away and have a break from responsibility before his parents find out about his expulsion because he "...didn't want to hang around anymore" and because he is tired of being surrounded by "phonies" at school. He took a break because he "figured my parents probably wouldn't get old Thurmer's letter saying I'd been given the axe till maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. I didn't want to go home or anything till they got it and thoroughly digested it and all. I didn't want to be around when they first got it." The reason behind his escape is that he needs to figure out who he is before he can deal with reality. At the end of the book Holden talks about a psychoanalysist who asks him questions about his future. He is not able to answer these questions because he has trouble taking responsibility for himself because he just doesn't want to deal with things like school and life in general. He never did any schoolwork and he never cared much when he got in trouble for not doing it. Holden does not know any reason for what he thinks and he can't explain himself. He just wants to be left alone to figure things out for himself. This is not the end of his journey but he is definitely closer to understanding himself. I thought that this book explained a lot about what life is like for some teenagers who are sent off to boarding school. Some teenagers are sent off so that they can find themselves spiritually. Holden is an interesting character and the way that the author lets him come across is very true to life. The language, tones, and actions of Holden make him seem like a real person.

Rating:
Summary: Timeless
Review: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is a fantastically written novel. Any teen would love this book because it is written using language and thoughts they would understand and have. Once you get into the book, you can't stop reading. I even found myself thinking about situations from the book while I wasn't reading it. Already being a classic, I'd recommend this book to anyone who isn't too uptight or snobby, because they might have problems dealing with the use of some sarcastic, blunt words. 5 stars, buy it today.

Rating:
Summary: An Extremely Overrated "Classic"
Review: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is considered to be a modern classic, a piece of literature that's value won't fade with time. It is set in the late forties or early fifties and is about a seventeen-year-old boy named Holden Caulfield and the 48 or so hours of his life after he is kicked out of yet another high school for flunking most of his classes. The theme of the book is seeing the world through a very original, angsty character's eyes and understanding what the world means to someone whose life is slowly falling apart.

The sad reality is that The Catcher in the Rye is probably one of the most overrated books of all time. The story aside, the style and form of the writing itself is so simplistic and vulgar that it is downright offensive to read. The narrative is the first-person journal of the main character who happens to be a pretty bad writer, which makes the reading of the book far from enjoyable. The vast majority of the sentences are short and choppy; the sentence structure never varies, creating a horribly boring read. If one pulled out the unnecessary cuss words from the narrative, the book could quite possibly be 20 pages shorter. The protagonist tends to repeat himself several times and continually tries to convince the reader that what he's saying is true. Salinger would probably defend his work by saying that the narrative was keeping Holden in character. I retort that if keeping the narrator in character means insulting the readers' intelligence, then perhaps making the character a better writer is in order. (On a side note, Holden's best subject in school is English. Go figure.)

The description in the story is also very lacking. Description in the first-person is a harder task than in third-person writing, but it's not impossible. Salinger has our character walking through high schools and 50's New York streets, in apartments and bars galore, but the reader is never immersed into the environment. Instead of facing the challenge of description in the first person, it's as though Salinger chooses to ignore it entirely. And when there is description, it is blunt and to the point; there is no embellishment that might bring the world to life.

Aside from the writing itself, the plot is the worst aspect of this book. The problem is that there is none. We are thrown into an arbitrary spot in this boy's life and we follow him aimlessly around New York for two days. Nothing actually happens. There is no flow of events, there is no building climax, and there is no resolution. We simply follow Holden Caulfield around for a while and then we stop. If readers of this book are expecting a story, they will be sorely disappointed.

The only good aspect of this story is the characterization. Holden Caulfield is the original angsty teenager. That is nothing original in this day and age, but Catcher has been credited as the first story to really bring that aspect of adolescence to light. And, despite his now stereotypical personality, he still manages to be a very original character. Many teens may be angry at the world, but Holden manages to be a very sympathetic person at the same time. Sadly, that is as deep as the character gets. He either hates, pities, or both pities and hates everyone he encounters, excepting his little sister alone. What's worse is that there is little to no character development. The Holden Caulfield of the first chapter is the exact same Holden Caulfield of the last chapter except that he has decided to write the journal that comprises the book. Holden's little sister, Phoebe, is just about the one and only delight of this story. Her character is the deepest of the secondary characters, and she's one of those personalities that makes simply reading about her a joy. Without her, there would be no redeeming factor to this book at all.

So, if Catcher is such a bad read, what made it a modern classic? The answer can be found on page 189 of the Little, Brown Books paperback edition. The speaker is one of Holden's old teachers from an earlier school who is trying to help him decide to straighten his life up.

"Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them--if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangment. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry."

The trouble with this book is that far too many people seem to think that this book, by its own confession, is history and poetry. They're reading far more into a very shallow story than was ever put into it. The Catcher in the Rye is still being hailed as a classic of modern literature, but a classic is a story that endures and has meaning long after the time it was written has passed. I'm hoping that in a hundred years gone by, this book will be dubbed what it was from the start: garbage.

Rating:
Summary: "Phony" or not??
Review: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is well detailed and descriptive classic novel about a young mans life. I feel that this book should be mandatory for all 9th grade English classes to read. The story is basically a three day diary of a young man named Holden Caulfield. Holden has just been kicked out of or expelled from a preppy, Catholic, all boy, private school in Pennsylvania. He is sixteen and a junior in high school. The experiences of a sixteen year old young man in 1950 effectively and exactly relate to experiences of sixteen year old in the year 2000. Tough the slang may differ a bit the details and plot still exists in today¹s every day high school boy life. This book starts of with a junior in high school being expelled. Written in first person, we the readers listen to what Holden has to say about being expelled, his feelings and his preppy school called Pencey Prep. Holden first tells us about his older brother who is in Hollywood, his younger brother who passed away and of his sister in elementary school. Then he jumps in to describing what a phony his school was. The details and myriad descriptions put us the readers into the dorm environment or in to the Pencey Prep. hallways and student life. Holden tells about his friends which aren¹t really friends but instead just plain perverts that use girls, sporty jocks, and the usual nerdy pimply dorks. He soon decides he has three days left till he has to be home hat he will just leave the school right away and go explore the streets of New York. This is where the adventure and typical high school boy routine begin. On many occasions he is at a bar wanting alcoholic beverages and sometimes he gets them, and others he doesn¹t due to under age. Then he is stuck spending the night at a friends house because he has nowhere else to stay. Then he is left with wanting or having a prostitute for the night. He is also thinking about all the guys at his old school. He gets back flashes of what they used to talk about and in many cases the main topic was sex, which is very typical of high school boys even tough you may not know it. As you continue on reading you begin to think the thoughts he is thinking, feel the sorrow for his brother, and kind of miss the jerks he has left behind. Until he wants to visit his sister to tell her he is going away. In the end the story takes a big U-turn. It takes a U-turn because we the readers are positive that Holden is going to go far away until he tells his sister he isn¹t going anywhere. As you have just read, I have given you, the reader a well detailed and thorough summary of the book. This is exactly what J.D. Salinger has done in The Catcher of The Rye. This book does not have any weaknesses what-so-ever just many great strengths. I would recommend this book to sophomores and above. The recommendation is for this age level because once you are a sophomore then you have the actual high school environment and feeling inside of you. This book would be good to read as a class in freshman year only to show a different style of writing that uses redundant words such as ³phony² and to show a vastly descriptive classic novel.

This book is intentionally for people who like to have something seem real to them or enjoy to read about how the grass was green or how he left and on what day and so on. J.D. Salinger does a marvelous job on writing a novel on three days of a young man¹s life. Many authors would have left these great details and descriptions out but Salinger chose to keep them which is the whole purpose of this unique, classic, truthful, high school novel.

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Summary: The Catcher in the Rye Book Review
Review: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger proves to be a novel about nothing more than the depressed misadventures of flunkout, Holden Caulfield. Holden through out the entire novel complains about nothing more than the whole world and how everything in it is phony. Listening to his on-going bouts with depression is not the most enjoyable thing to read.
Holden's views of the world and the people living in it are a little less thoughtful than the average description. Holden just flat out judges people on something as simple as the way someone carries themself in their profession. He comments on the piano player Ernie, who is so good, that if he were to talk to he wwouldn't give you the time of day! This is totally wrong and extremly childish of Holden to consider someone phony if they are a master at their profession. Holden does comment himself as being childish, (pg.9) so these type of views,although prejudice, should be expected. Defining prejudice in the case of Holden would be thathe is obviouslly jealous of those who can be considered phony. If being phony means being someone who has made a living for themself and has achevied what most people would consider sucsess, all Americans, or at least mostAmericans, would want to be phony! The list of phonies goes on and on. Ernie, Mrs. Morrow, Stradlater, the boys at Pencey and the boys at Holden's other schools. It seems that the only people who are not phonies are, Phoebe, Holden's sister, Allie, Holden's dead brother and Holden himself.
Holden through out the novel struggles with his depression, this prehaps the largest conflict of the book. All other disputes seem to disappear compared to Holden's on going battle with himself.
Salinger uses flashback like descriptions of Holden's brother, Allie,who died of cancer. Salinger used memories of the baseball glove to give us some insight into what exactly is going on in Holden's head. Maybe, just maybe, the reader can make some connection between Holden's past and his depressed present state.
The theme is simply this; nothing can destroy your life faster than you can. If you can not come to terms with your own struggles, no other problems can be resolved.
A catcher can not catch without the glove. Allie's glove is one of the things that Holden remembers best about Allie. Allie died as a young child. The child singing on the street is a direct connection for Holden. The field symbolizes life, when a field runs of out to a cliff, the vegatation slowly dies out, once the rye is completly gone the only place to go is off the cliff. Falling off the cliff, in Holden's mind, is death. Holden feels if he can catch the children, he can save someone from the pain that he felt at his brother's death. Although he may not relize it, he is saving more than the cchildren, by commiting himself to others, he is saving himself.
I think if you are looking for a book that's underlying message is something you must figure out yourself, this one is for you. If you tend to become offended by course language, prostitutes and underaged drinking, you might want to steer clear of this one!