The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

 

Summary (from the publisher): Holden Caulfield is a seventeen- year-old dropout who has just been kicked out of his fourth school. Navigating his way through the challenges of growing up, Holden dissects the 'phony' aspects of society, and the 'phonies' themselves: the headmaster whose affability depends on the wealth of the parents, his roommate who scores with girls using sickly-sweet affection.

Review: In The Catcher in the Rye, the reader follows adolescent Holden Caulfield as he descents into delinquency. Over the course of a few days, 16-year-old Holden gets kicked out of his elite boarding school and then runs away. His rambling narration slowly reveals that behind his tough exterior is a complex individual who has experienced immense loss and is rejecting the broken world he finds himself in. 

As the novel progresses, it becomes clear that behind all his wise talk is a boy who is deeply sensing and cannot stomach seeing others left out or hurt. When he is most depressed, he relives a moment when he told his kid brother that he couldn't go shot BB guns with him and his friends: "Allie heard us talking about it, and he wanted to, and I wouldn't let him. I told him he was a child. So once in a while, now, when I get very depressed, I keep saying to him, 'Okay. Go home and get your bike and meet us in front of Bobby's house. Hurry up.'" (99). He deeply cares for his siblings and watches out for kids without any friends. His surface response in his narration is in opposition to the immense feeling that lies just below the surface in this wounded, bright boy.

I struggle with reviews for classic literature. What is there to say that hasn't already been said? This is a classic, with good reason. Holden is lost, displaced, wounded. But all the while trying hard to make it seem like he doesn't really care all that much. My heart ached for him. 

Stars: 4