Customer Reviews
A Matter of Love and Hate - By: BeLa, 28 Dec 2008 
Twelve years ago, my history teacherin High School sang the praises of a book that,in his own words, every adolescent should read at some point.Three days ago, & twelve years later,Santa finally did what I hadn'tin all those years,and brought me a copy of The Catcherin the Rye.
I read itin a couple of nights. The first night I felt like someone I had thought my friend had let me downin some way. I started to suspect that it might be the typical overrated classic.The boy starts a story from some place he's confined in, but he doesn't elaborate. He then starts the telling of what happened last Christmas, which eventually led to his being where he is. As much as I tried, I could find nothing especial there, just the boy & his school mates & troubles & the crazy decision of flee to avoid parental confrotation & an immature teen with a lot ot maturing to do. He most probably would end up doing something stupid & being caught & all. Perhaps it was too late. Perhaps I was too late, & should have read it just when Mr. Montejo told me to.
Yesterday night, I picked the book again. Sadly, more out of the respect I had been brewing for the last years than out of real interest, but I picked it anyway. And then IT happened.
At some point of Holden's account,everything just clicks. Where he was, why he was there, what was going on with him. So I had to read other's thoughts about this amazing character.
I wasn't really surprised at the bunch of negative reviews, & neither I was at the bunch which considered it a masterpiece. What really surprised me is that many of them, good or bad, seemed to miss something that to me was crucial to the story: that Holden is not the teenager boy going through the difficult task of coming of age & doing stupid things & leaving the innocence of childhood behind, as I had previously suspected & feared. But that his problem, his real problem, is deeper & more dangerous than that. That he is tired of everything & everyone,in serious need of help, immersedin a serious depression, inestable & anguished to a dangerous extreme.
When he first mentions his brother Allie's death of leukemia when he was 13, or how he broke all the widow glasses of their garage afterwards,he does itin an almost eerily casual manner. But later you realise that perhaps that day was the day Holden Caulfield started his race toward the very same precipice he wants to save those children of his dreams from. Unfortunately, as he says, there's no one big around to catch him.
It's not that this book leads to violent acts or has the power of perturbing minds. More like perturbed minds recognise what's really going on with Holden. That he's not only coming-of-age, but he's coming of age immersedin a depression no one seems to see or care about. When his sister confronts him, he ends up crying & clinging on to her like she's the only thing that can save him. Perhaps she is, & she literally saved him without knowing it.
Perhaps I'min the minority, but as caustic & sad Holden's thoughts are, I don't feel his story is pessimist, but rather the tale of a catharsis that was both necessary AND urgent for him. He is conscious of many things about the world, but also about himself, contrary to many opinions I've read. And he has a good heart, & not an agressive nature. It can end well.
I wholeheartedly recommend this book, but with some warnings. If you need things happening all the time to feel there's something going on, this is not your book. If you expect a coming-of-age narrative, you won't like it either. If you are looking for different tonesin the voice, you'll be dissapointed & find it lineal. And if you are an adolescent, I can't tell. You might or might not like it; you might or might not feel it.
As for me, I'm truly thankful for not having read this book when I was Holden's age. I wouldn't have liked it, & so I would have missed this amazing feeling I'm having today. The feeling of having been touched by something. It doesn't happens often, nowadays.
My apologies for the rant! :D
- BeLa
One of the best books I have read - By: A. Lawrence, 25 Nov 2008 This book has it all, humour, anger & brilliant observations of life & people, that all of us can identify with.
The book is writtenin such an amateur style (but salinger knows what he is doing)that one has to warm to the character immediately.
Great Book.
It's just so real - By: Zoe A., 02 Nov 2008 On a personal note, I only read this book a few months ago & I felt I could relate to a lot of what the young adolescent narrator is going through. Anyone who has been a teenager can.
Catcherin the Rye isn't a plot filled story; I wouldn't say a whole lot happens as such, but it's the wayin which it's written & how the centeral character describes what he is feeling that makes this book so beautiful.
It's like you know this boy, Holden Caulfield becomes your friend as you read on. Reading the novel is like hearing a close friend telling you a story about what's been happeningin their life. When it ended, I almost missed him & his dystopic views of the world; which makes me know I'll be reading it again & again.
It's upto you as the reader to decide how complex J.D Salinger's ideas for this novel were. I mean, if you want to just take the story as it is, you can, but if you want to put forward your own interpretations & symbolism of the events that take place, you can do that too & no one has the right to argue with you because no one but Salinger can say what the book is truly about. That's another thing that makes it such a personal book to every individual that reads it.
So, maybe it isn't dripping with plot twists & insanely complicated ideas, but it's such a "touchable" book, the character is so relatable & his story so understandable, that it has become one of the most captivating things I have, & very probably ever will, read.
Its such a goddamn phony world! - By: Mr. S. J. Wade, 01 Nov 2008 This book is great because Holden Caulfield is such an authentic voice & it is so funny & so sad too. Its hard to deny that most of what he says is true & hilarious for that fact. Butin the end its just a bit depressing, even if his conclusions, which make you sad, are a bit wrong. Hey, Holden, (you wanna say) children are phonies too. His love for his little sister is pure (I always think she must look like Zuzuin Capra's Its a Wonderful Life), & is as touching as anyin literature. And, yeah, where do the ducks go toin winter? Its a reasonable question.
The big pity is that instead of letting it stand & letting it/him speak for itself/himself, to whomever wants to listen, all these phonies turn up & want to smash the toy to show how it works. And then they go & write their thoughts on Amazon. How phony is that? But I don't give a goddamn. Once read, never forgotten.
Overated - By: JMF, 09 Oct 2008 
Boring, over rated book.
I, like many others, was handed this book & told that it was a life changing read. It was an utter load of rubbish.
I think the people who recommend this book are suffering with a bad case of the Emperors New Clothes.
