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Summary: A reality check for teenagers and adults alike.
Review: Written from the point of view of an average American teenager, this novel seems to bring out the best and worst in all of us. Perhaps the most gripping fact about this book is that it is reflective of our society. Obviously, societal behaviors are what drove Salliager to write this novel, not the opposite: our behavior changing, for the worse due to this novel
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Summary: MY FAVORITE BOOK EVER!
Review: Written in a wonderfully casual style. Everyone should read this book.
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Summary: its just you and j.d.... and everyone else
Review: yes, its a good book. salinger knows how to get buddy-buddy with you. it'll feel like its just between you and holden... it is however worth remembering that it's like that for most people.
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Summary: What's all the Rave about?
Review: Yes, this book is masterfully written and has all sorts of crazy metaphors and signals, but it's not a good story. I could explain to you the whole plot and it'd take me less than three sentences. If your looking for a book that you could pick apart word for word and spend a decade studying, then this is the one. If you're looking for a book to read and get a thrill or some knowledge out of, then I'd reconsider this book.
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Summary: Terence, this is stupid stuff.
Review: Yes, yes--you know the shtick: I read CATCHER when I was in high school--and, like all things banally true, have rediscovered it again at 35. But what a book! I'm not sure any writer, no matter how talented, can pull off consistency of voice the way Salinger did. I could only think of Twain's Huck Finn, perhaps Cather's Jim Burden, and Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. I felt as if I had touched (if you will) a real person, a real voice, one that lived on days after I had finished the book. I'm sure the plot is far too contrived (the homosexuality, veiled and polite, is so predictable as to be laughable), and the other characters disappear into a miasama of similarity. But then Holden. He remains, a voice of unfettered adolescence born out of the fevered memory of adulthood, mine and Salinger's. A genuine voice, the "real thing" (without James's silly ambiguities)--perhaps no reader can ask for more
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Summary: Not about Baseball!
Review: Yogi Berra said it best....to paraphrase "I thought Catcher in the Rye was about baseball, but it was just about some whiny kid."That being said, the book, released in the early 1950's, portrays Holden Caulfied as the paradoxical "all-knowing/totally confused" adolescent. The story takes place over a period of several days after Caulfield has been expelled from prep school. His cynical observations on his sorry state of affairs and his contempt for teachers, phonies and apparently all adults in general ring amazingly contemporary despite the book's being nearly 50 years old. I read this book in college, then later as a married adult and parent. It speaks volumes to the alienation of youth in a fast-paced engaging prose. For those who read this growing up, it is worth another look from an adult perspective. You'll be amazed at how different your reaction will be from the first time you read it.
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Summary: Catcher didn't catch me!!
Review: You can read the story plot from someone elses reveiw, I don't think I need to take the time. I have just started to go back and read all the books I was suppose to read in high school and can't remember if I actually read this one or not back then. This is the type of book that turned me off to reading. With books like this mandatory to read in high school no wonder I have not read a book in 10 years. Maybe I don't get the hidden messages that are suppose to be buired in some books but this was not an enjoyable book. I did read the whole thing thinking something would eventualy happen and it did not. If you are just starting to read books don't pick this one up for a while.
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Summary: A Timeless Classic. 5 STARS *****
Review: You don't need Cliffs Notes or any other thing other than your own brain to read this and understand what Salinger was saying here. There's a little bit (and a lot also) of Holden Caulfied in each of us. I don't care who you are, or what you do. Salinger writes this with a fresh youthful narrative, both demanding your attention and causing you to think and let out a sigh of pleasure after you've read it. There are funny bits in here, and also serious directions to the mental state of Holden Caulfield. The swearing? Come on people: best said in Stephen King's book, On Writing, where he explains his answer to his own mother's question as to why he had swearing in his writing: because the writing is a direct reflection of 'real' life. A truck driver gets cut off on the highway, almost plowing into another car, he's not going to say, "Oh, darn!" Caulfield'd dialogue is his real dialogue; he's not going to hold anything back. Don't read this for a teacher's book report, not for a creative writing class, but only for the pure intention that J.D. Salinger intended: for the enjoyment of it. 5 STAR ESSENTIAL RATING FROM SCRAGGY'S TOMB OF CLASSIC LIT, USA.
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Summary: Masterpiece
Review: You either get it or you don't. For those of you that don't, that's ok. Don't knock it though, because you truly come across as nutty. For those of us that do, what a MASTERPIECE. Holden is gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous, and I mean that in a good way.
This book is a must because it set the standard for the 21st century American teen coming of age. Nothing had been done like this before. The testament to its power? It still holds its weight today. Catcher rings louder and truer than ever before.
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Summary: Not for people from West Virginia...
Review: You grew up in a small town, didn't have many friends, went off to college and found it to be a strange new place... This book is for you. I don't know what people in West Virginia have against this book, but I suppose like anything else, everything is relative to your own personal experience. If you've never lived in New York, you probably wouldn't understand. Anyone who can't understand why a man would pay a hooker just to get company, to have someone to talk to, has obviously never had the luxury of feeling true loneliness. Holden's inability to articulate a certain memory without sidetracking is indicative of his state of mind (is it not a term paper; it is a confused young kid talking about how he feels). If you don't understand that, you really shouldn't read the book at all.
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