Rating: Summary: NOT WHAT IT SEEMS.... Review: I GOT THIS BOOK BECAUSE I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE GOOD. IN FACT, I THOUGHT IT WOULD AT LEAST BE OKAY...I WAS WRONG! AFTER READING ALL THE REVIEWS, I SEROUISLY THINK THAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT THE WRONG BOOK HERE. HOW DO PEOPLE LIKE THIS BOOK SO MUCH? I GAVE IT 2 STARS BECAUSE I BELIEVE THAT YEAH, SURE THERE ARE WORSE BOOKS AROUND, SO THIS DOESN'T DESERVE THE WORST RATING, BUT PRETTY DANG CLOSE. ITS LITERALLY ABOUT A BOY COMPLAINING ABOUT HIS MISERABLLY LIFE FOR 300 pages...WASTE OF TIME!
Rating: Summary: It was one of the best books I ever read Review: I had bought this book to read on my trip to Costa Rica. The entire time I was there I found my nose in this book. I feel it was well written and think that everyone should read it. I personally could relate to it and think maybe it will help people look at the world a little differently. It truely was one of the best books I have ever read. After completing it I just wanted to keep on reading. I wantd more to happen I liked it so much. Being 15 at the time I recomend this to both adults and teens.
Rating: Summary: Best book ever Review: I had heard many things about this book growing up but I never read it until at the University Of Tennessee. My english professor told how at the age of 18, he married, dropped out of school and had a miserable life. He hated English and had never read a book in his life. One day while house sitting for a friend, he saw "Catcher In The Rye" sitting on the coffee table. He read it from cover to cover and it changed his life. He went back to high school, finished college and received a PHd. When I heard this story I decided I finally had to read this book. What an awesome book it was! It relates to kids in 1952 or 2002. What a story! I have read it 3 or 4 times since then... The last time I called UT to check on the prof, I was told he died of a massive heart attack. Dr. Sekula, wherever you are, thanks for the book!
Rating: Summary: kirby in georgia Review: I had heard of this book for many years and was looking forward to a nice read.Wow was I disappointed. It has officially been placed on the top of my list for the books that were a waste of my time to read. I have never been so horribly disillusioned in a book before in my life. It's just a displaced, whineing, pathetic story of a teen with not an once of ambition or positive outlook on life in general. I only gave it a rating of one because there was not an option for zero.
Rating: Summary: I Don't Get It Review: I had heard so much about this so called classic that when I found it included in a box of used books given to me I eagerly attacked it. 10 pages in I was puzzled...20 pages in I was sure I was missing something...30 pages in I was bored to tears. I stuck through this sorry mess to the bitter end in the hopes that there might be some redeeming factor to it but, alas, there was none to be found. This book was obviously an attempt to speak to the feelings of loneliness and alienation often felt by adolescents but the protagonist's self-pitying, stream of consciousness torrent of complaints against all of existance left me wanting to scream "Shut the @#?! up". Truly one of the worst books I have ever read.
Rating: Summary: An admirable voice that couldn't touch this "Phonie" Review: I had immense expectations for this book before i even flipped open to the first page, due to the fact that one of my best friend absolutely worshipped this book (that already shows how much of a "phony" I am). However, no matter how hard I tried, I simply could not relate with Holden. It wasn't that I didn't hear his message or empathize with him, but it was as if some very subtle but crucial connection was missing between us. I guess the biggest reason I couldn't connect with Holden was because I am one of those children that he failed to catch and fell off the cliff. Unfortunately, as life progresses, it is inevitable that we lose some of our innocence. However, the degree of cynicism expressed by Holden was simply too much for this generally optimistic reader. I probably would have appreciated this book much more if i had read it during my teenage angst years rather than my current stage of my life (one of balance and content). Yes, the world is full of "phonies", but that doesn't mean the end to all innocence. I guess i still feel innocent at heart, and therefore I don't think, as Holden would have put it, the world such a "crumby place".
Rating: Summary: An interesting novel Review: I had never heard a bad thing about "the Catcher and the Rye," so I decided to read it. I don't see how so many people can like it and recommend this novel. The story isn't too horrible, and even the plot isn't too terrible. But the word selection, sentence structure and syntax is the worst I have read. Wow, I never knew how often someone could repeat the same phrases and have a novel published. If I wrote an essay where I said this 'kills' me (he meant amused me) every paragraph, I know my English teacher would fail me. If half the time I started to describe something, I said, "But I don't feel like telling you about that" or "But I am not in the mood," my paper would flunk. I never knew how often the word "phony" could be used. I really tried to stay openminded about this book, but by the end of the novel I was no longer enjoying his story because of the writing style. The story in itself is not that bad; I have read worse. This boy Holden has just flunked out of his third prep school, and we join him over the next two or three days of his life. Holden seems to think many people are phony, and I think that the phoniness of so many people must be the point of this novel. I agree that a lot of people do things because it is what is expected of them, but does that make them phony. I think that Holden used other people's phoniness as an excuse not to apply himself, because he was not phony like others. Overall, I gave the novel two stars because of its grammer, the plot wasn't too bad.
Rating: Summary: The book was a complete waste of time. Review: I had so many high expectations for a book that had caused so much slander in American Society. Why would the people care about the book unless it contained revolutionary ideas. Instead, the only apparent reason they did care was that it was filled with profanity, sex, and filth. If I want to know all of that about the world we live in, I'll just watch the news. I try to read a book so that it may give me a new perspective on life rather than just telling me what I already know about it. This book is not worth the time or the money. Anybody can just walk around town and hear the same foul language.
Rating: Summary: It Caught Me Review: I had the good fortune to stumble upon "Catcher in the Rye" during my Junior year of high school. I have read it five times since then and I find new levels of meaning each time. Holden Caufield could be a teenager today, or then. He symbolizes both the wonderful (his sense of humor) and the horrible (his tendency to blame others) trappings of youth. Everyone can relate to this book. Whether we know it or not, we are all Holden Caufield
Rating: Summary: Perhaps the biggest literary dissapointment I have ever read Review: I had thought for many years I was missing something by not having read the 'classic' Catcher in the Rye. After suffering through this highly, unsatisfying, cynical read, I have to pause and wonder how we have come to this point as a society. Here we revere a character that has not a positive word to say about anybody and who laughably ruminates on the essence of phoniness in his world, all the while whining about his deep-seeded depression. Holden Caulfield is the epitome of the phoniness he holds in such contempt. Of course the baby boomer generation relates to this moronic, critical, lazy character who brazenly takes opportunities given to him by his parents, namely a quality expensive education, and squanders them one after another. Then this lout has the unmitigated gall to take Christmas money from his little sister. Holden Caulfield is a vapid, soulless character, much like the entire baby-boomer generation that has venerated Salinger and never grown out of t! heir own adolescent, self pitying depression. Let it be known that I am 35 years old, not some old codger compaining about the younger generation. For the sake of future generations, I beg with informed readers everywhere to reveal this sham of considering Catcher in the Rye a classic for what it really is - a pathetic piece of drivel.
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