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Summary: A book helping young people cope with their lives.
Review: Holden Caufield is my hero. The language in the book and the characters make the catcher in the rye an indpiration to all. After reading it you want to call old J.D. up and tell him how much you liked it
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Summary: Catcher in the Rye: The Greatest book ever written.
Review: Holden Caufield is one of the most captivating characters of modern literature. The story was very relateable to teenagers of the 90's. Ever teenager should read this book at least once in their lives.
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Summary: Holden Caufield
Review: Holden Caufield is probably the coolest anti-hero you'll ever find. Salinger wrote a book in which everyone (everyone I know) can identify with a character who can't identify with anyone else in the book. Amazing.
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Summary: A changing Holden
Review: Holden Caufield jumped into my life about seven years ago when I was in high-school. I thought he was a funny smart alec who understood how rough it can be to be a teenager. But the more times I read this novel the more I realize that, while Holden's sense of humor is funny and smart, his attitude on life is one of fierce detachment. Through his relationship with his sister Pheobe, we can see that the only thing Holden truly loves is the past, and his only dream is to halt things where they are so that the things he loves will not change in any way. He is still suffering from the loss of his brother, Allie, and can not stand it that someone so young and innocent could have departed so soon. He is embittered against his brother D.B. who, Holden feels, has sold out in order to write scripts for Hollywood movies. And he is fiercely protective of his sister Pheobe, the only thing in his life that is still fresh and innocent and the only person he truly loves. Every anecdote and conversation that Holden has screams of this obvious longing to just stop things for a bit and not have to worry about people changing or growing up. There is not a single character with whom he interacts with for more than five minutes that he doesn't wind up resenting due to some part of their personality which indicates to Holden that they have sold out, moved on, lost track and become phonies. Outside of Pheobe there is only Jane Gallagher, the girl he used to hang out with, who he can view as being the same as she always was. And although Holden mentions calling her up numerous times in the book, he never actually communicates with her in any way being too afraid of what he'd find out about her. Especially after learning at the beginning of the novel that Jane has gone out on a date with his roommate, a known ladies man. The idea that Jane is now facing the trials and tribulations of real life would be too much for Holden to deal with, resulting in a strong desire to talk to Jane, but a fear of what he might find out. Holden is left with the memory of Jane as he loved her, and the real life Pheobe who he still loves, but desperately wants to preserve, thus finding peace at the end of the novel as she rides around and around, hopefully for Holden, forever on the merry-go-round. I related to Holden when I first read him. But I find I relate to Salinger as an artist more then Holden after subsequent readings.
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Summary: Do not hesitate: read this book!
Review: Holden Caufield, a 16 year-old boy on the verge of adulthood, is not sure of how to behave in a world filled with 'phonies'. Holden wanders around his hometown New York, after he got expelled from this fine school Pencey for bad term results. Not wanting to face his parents, he tries to find out what life has to offer, if there is a way out of superficiality. What makes this story so controversial is that it attacks the basic values of the American Way of Living. At the age of sixteen Holden realizes that life is not like the make-believe of the pictures. After some embarrassing confrontation he realizes that what lies behind the façade of normality is often very painful, but still offers its own dark pleasures. Holden's biggest wish is to escape from everything 'phony', but what he gets is confirmation of his own faking. The Catcher in the Rye is a book that has been analyzed by scholars like no other book. Trying to summarize the impact in a few lines is simply impossible. What can be made clear though, is that no matter if you hate or love the book, it will leave a permanent impression behind somewhere in every readers mind, a little devil that awakes at the most unexpected moments. If their is ever going to be made a list of most powerful books, The Catcher in the Rye is bound to be heavy competition for first place. What the character Holden hungers for the most, is exactly for what Salinger himself has found the courage to accomplish: the author now lives in a secluded cottage, isolated form everything 'phony'. Rumors say that he is still writing books, but refuses to publish any of them. I find it very admirable that Salinger does not betray his own principles. But then again, if means that we cannot read what masterpieces he is bound to have written...
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Summary: great book!
Review: Holden Caufield, and average high school kid, until his brother Allie dies. He misses his brother that he loved so much, i think that it caused him to flunk out of boarding school and run away to the city. in the city he gets very depressed, and feels like he can't ever go home. i won't give away the end, but all i'll say is that i couldn't put it down! READ THIS BOOK! it was awesome!
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Summary: Dan's review
Review: Holden Caufield, in The Catcher in the Rye, is a very upsetting person as an individual. He sees the world as many "phonies". He is not disciplined at all and is not well educated. He has been to several private schools, although he manages to be kicked out of all of them. So he has had the chance to be well educated he never applies himself though. He has no drive in him that I see. He has a poor outlook on everything wrong and write in the world. If this type of person is the type the author tried to portray in the novel, he did a very nice job. It would be interesting to read some of his other novels to compare them. I hope not all the main characters in his novels are that negative. Do not get me wrong the book was good as a whole. The mood and negativity of Holden added to the quality of the book. That is more than likely what the author was trying to create in his writing. It educated the reader a little about life in school and for a young adult. How it might be a little rough at times and there are decisions that must be made on the way. I hope that some young adults can learn that school is important and a necessity of life. I took that one thing away from this book plus a few others. Parents might learn something as well. They can learn to be a little more understanding of their children at times. Overall, I would recommend this novel to other people, old and young, not too young.
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Summary: Still the model....
Review: Holden Caufield, the main character in this short, easily-read novel, remains the model for disaffected youth in modern literature. When reading this, who among us hasn't felt like Holden? Not knowing where we are, where we should be, where we belong, what we should be doing, just simply existing.
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Summary: An Essential Read!!!
Review: Holden Caulfield can really tap into many of the wacky thoughts we all must have had at one time or another. My only regret after reading this book, in one sitting mind you, is that I hadn't read it 8 years ago when I was 16 going through many similar and confusing trials in my own life. I can only imagine JD Salinger must have had quiet an experience during his adolescent years to be able to articulate them so well through the eyes of this character.
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Summary: the essence of a lost youth¿s plight
Review: Holden Caulfield carried around a lot of emotional
baggage for one so young ( sixteen ). His growing pains
were overwhelming at times as he was entering manhood;
his rite of passage, if you will. He saw his older brother
J B the writer as a total sellout for becoming a hack writer
in Hollywood. Holden loved his younger sister Phoebe. He
thought she was wicked smart. He still mourned his little
brother Allie who had died of leukemia. Holden had a hard
time handling Allie's death. Somehow he just didn't seem
to fit in anywhere. He had a problem dating girls his own
age. He fought with his roommate. His grades were failing
at his second prep school of which he was asked to leave.
Holden Caulfield didn't seem to really belong anywhere!
I think that Salinger has nailed it in this novel. He has
captured the essence of a lost youth's plight. A great read.
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