I am Holden Caulfield.

Okay, not really. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of all the animosity people feel toward him. He does deserve the hate - he's hypocritical, judgmental, whiny, and somewhat of a jerk overall. In fact, his awkwardness around the concept of homosexuality almost angered me.

But, as a seventeen-year-old male (just turned 17 last week!) I can honestly say that I connect with Holden. I usually detest characters who complain on every other page, but Holden complained on pretty much every page and I still empathized with him. He's a lonely guy with an idealistic, unrealistic perspective who doesn't know how to hold his own in a world where not everything can be watered down to black and white and right and wrong. He's caring, emotional, and intelligent, but so thoroughly disconnected from everyone that he cannot express what he wants, if he even knows what that is. He is hurt, he needs to heal, and he is one of the few fictional characters who I would give a hug to if I could.

Overall, major respect points to J.D. Salinger for writing what is commonly called the first real "young-adult" book/classic, and for creating the most banned book ever. The Catcher in the Rye should be read by anyone searching for a wonderfully misanthropic, tragically classic coming-of-age story.

*interestingly enough, Carol Gilligan, a researcher in the field of developmental psychology, states that boys have a more absolute view of right and wrong while girls are more likely to take into account situational factors. Perhaps this plays a part in me and Holden's thinking pattern...

*cross-posted from my blog, the quiet voice.

"I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all...And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff...I'd just be the catcher in the rye."

3.5 stars
This is my second time reading Catcher, and unfortunately I couldn't really connect with it.
Holden Caulfield has to be one of the strangest and most sarcastic main characters I've ever come across!
In 190 pages, there really isn't a lot that actually happens. It's mainly Holden telling anecdote after anecdote with regards to the schools he has attended and the people he has met.
He's a very lonely character, and I did feel for him at several intervals - but overall I just don't understand the hype for this one.

My brother is four years older than I am, he's mechanically inclined, and ladies have always found him to be charming. My parents told me I was the smart one, but I knew better.

Back in 1962 when my brother was in his Junior year in high school he read The Catcher in the Rye. He was quite open about it. My parents heard from their church friends that although the book was about a teenager the book was inappropriate for teenagers. So one day at the dinner table my parents verbally attacked my brother for reading a "smutty" book. My parents expected an apology, instead my brother eloquently defended the book's literary worth. He didn't convince my parents that they were wrong, but he did convince them he was smarter than they could ever have imagined, and he left them speechless.

Later that night I snuck into my brother's room and I stole his copy of the book, then I secretly read it. For a while after that I was a huge J.D. Salinger fan and I saved up my lunch money to purchase every available Salinger book.

...الناس أذواق يجب أن لا يكون لديكم شك في ذلك
أعرف كثيرين لم ترق لهم هذه الرواية كما أعرف أن سالينجر لم يكتب غيرها
وأعرف أن هناك أفلام كثيرة استوحت منها بل إن أحد المجانين وضع فيلم عبارة عن شاشة فارغة كتب عليها اسم الرواية ، كما أعرف أن آخرا قتل جون لينون أحد نجوم فرقة البيتلز وكان تحت تأثير هذه الرواية

ماالذي أعجبني في رواية سالينجر هو الآتي
انسياب السرد بطريقة مدهشة
أنه كتب بلسان وتفكير مراهق
لم أقرأ رواية حتى الآن نفذت لعمق وتفكير مراهق بهذا النضج وبهذا العمق
كما إن تصرفات هذا المراهق ولسانه البذىء كان يجعلني أضحك من قلبي
وأترك الكتاب حينا لأصفق وأحيانا لأشتم الكاتب
كيف لا أعجب براوي يمنحني مثل هذا الشعور

الحارس في حقل الشوفان
امتعتني بشكل خرافي

n  n    Book Reviewn  n
3+ out of 5 stars to The Catcher in the Rye, a coming-of-age novel published in 1951 by J.D. Salinger. I am so glad I read this book as a teenager and not as an adult. I would absolutely hate it today, not because it's poorly written or has no value, but because I'd hate Holden more than anything in the world. I was certainly not a perfect teenager, but I never had that angst as a kid, nor do I have it now. I have maybe 10 days a year where I complain a little bit about something, but for the most part, my mouth is shut and I do what I'm supposed to do. Supposed to, as in my own perception, not because someone else tells me to do it. Arguing and railing and running away and getting angry don't come naturally to me, so I couldn't identify with him. That said, I've seen this in others and it was well captured, a bit ahead of its time. For those reasons, it's a good book. I'm a little concerned this is the type of book that will no longer be read... and teens reading it today wouldn't understand it. I'm curious to see reviews by the under 25 crowd, just purely to see if the current generation has any different feelings towards it than I had when I read it in high school in the 90s.

n  n    About Men  n
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by.

Beautiful!

I had been somewhat hesitant to read "The Catcher in the Rye" after snoozing through Salinger's "Nine Stories," but I'm glad I finally came around. This book is a work of genius.

The book is a "coming of age" tale, but it certainly transcends the adolescent garbage that fills up most of the genre. The protagonist is 16 year old Holden Caulfield - depressed, aimless, and disillusioned. The entire story covers just one December weekend in which he seeks to find direction in his life after flunking out of another prep school. As Caulfield contemplates his transition from adolescence to adulthood, he becomes disgusted with the utter "phoniness" of society and longs for the innocence of youth.

Where Salinger's masterpieces surpasses other notable coming of age novels such as "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man" and "This Side of Paradise" is in the treatment of social mores. Where these other novels offer a one-dimensional treatment of sexuality and religious apostasy as the sum-all of maturation, Salinger offers a more complicated, more realistic picture.

Caulfield's narrative certainly deals with sexuality, but he goes beyond the stock material of young man bucking sexual conventions. After first boasting about past sexual encounters, Caulfield admits he's actually a virgin. At an age in which sexual experience is a badge of honor for most young men, Caulfied decides that sex should be as much spiritual as physical and ought to be shared only with someone he really cares about. When his sexually experienced roommate goes out with an innocent childhood friend, Caulfield throws it down with the young man in protest against the perceived assault on innocence. Later, Caulfield accepts a prostitute into his room only to become depressed, pay the girl, and turn her out without accepting her services. The following day, Caulfield donates $10 to two humble nuns, the same amount paid to the whore the night before.

Salinger's treatment of religion is equally nuanced and equally honest. While claiming to be "practically an atheist," Caulfield also admits that he has a desire to pray. While disclaiming a belief in God, he occasionally asks what Christ would think about people's actions. In Caulfield's conflict, the reader sees a certain disgust with the phoniness of organized religion set against a sincere acceptance of Christ's actual message.

So while this book shares with other novels a contempt for societal mores, it is not a simple repudiation of religion in favor of unrestrained sexuality. Caulfield does reject most of the adult world he encounters as utterly "phony," but he does not follow the stock pattern laid down by earlier modernists. Caulfield questions it all, perhaps despising Hollywood above everything else.

So what does Caulfield accept after rejecting all of adult society? Childhood innocence. The only thing that makes this young man happy is spending time with children, his young sister most of all. Indeed, the section giving rise to the title of the work is a poignant plea for saving innocent children from the phoniness and corruption of the world.

So for all the past scandal about the profanity and sexuality in this work, there is much to be admired by the secularist and the Christian alike. That's difficult to do, but Salinger pulls it off marvelously. Though we can't all agree what influences in society are corrupting, I think most everyone can agree that there is initially some purity that is corrupted.

The metaphors in this book were excellent and the underlying meaning is classic literature but I found this book very depressing. Holden's constant complaining and cursing made this hard for me to read for long periods of time.

I was worried as hell about reading this book again. The last time I read it was about a thousand years ago when I was just a kid. I was lousy with angst just like good old Holden back then. I really was. Now that I’m a crummy old guy I figured that I wouldn’t like it anymore. That’s the one thing about crummy old guys, they always hate books that kids like. Every time I reread a corny book that I really liked when I was a kid it makes me want to give the writer a buzz and ask what the hell is going on. It’s like they are trying to give you the time in the back of a cab when you don’t feel like getting the time at all. It’s damn depressing, I swear to God it is. If you want to know the truth, you probably couldn’t even talk to a phony writer on the phone. You would just end up talking to his butler or some snobbish person like that and asking if they would give the writer your message. He probably wouldn’t even do it. The thing with guys like that is that they will never give writers your messages. That’s something that annoys the hell out of me.

Turns out this is still a damn good book. Salinger kid is a great writer. He really is. Maybe I’m still just an angst-ridden sonuvabitch, but this part kills me:

“All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she’d fall off the goddam horse, but I didn’t say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it’s bad if you say anything to them.”p.211

I’ll bet everyone is going to think that I’m just horsin’ around or trying to be all sexy talking like this. The reason for this corny review is because a thousand other people have already written reviews for this book and I’ll bet that they have already said everything that I want to say. It’s pretty depressing. It really is. That’s about all that I’m going to talk about. Now I just hope that no one writes “fuck you” on this review. That’s the thing with some people, they are always sneaking up and writing “fuck you” on your book reviews when you are not looking. They really are.

“I’m quite illiterate, but I read a lot.”

The unique voice of Holden Caulfield fluctuates between dry humor and drama, providing a compelling bildungsroman that resonates through its psychological bravado. Holden struggles to figure out who he is and where he belongs. He delves into an existential labyrinth in search of his own identity and ultimately happiness. There is no closure: moments of calmness and clarity alternate with frustration and confusion, ending with paroxysmal delusions that culminate in an emotional collapse.

“The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.”

Reread: 4.25/5

20th book of 2022.

2nd reading. I could say all this phony stuff about how brilliant this novel is and how brilliant Salinger is and how Holden Caulfield still knocks me out, but I won’t. It would probably make you puke all over yourself, honestly. It would also make you puke all over yourself if I whined about how much Holden whines as a teenage boy and pretended that there isn’t at least something relatable in the whole goddam story. That would be a really gorgeous thing to do. So I won’t do either. This book kills me though and I’d like to give old Salinger a buzz and chat to him for a while. Even Nabokov liked him and Nabokov, great as he is, said phony stuff about loads of knockout writers. I could even be like one of those phony Ivy League guys and give examples of why Holden is great and why Salinger is great, rather than just telling you, but that would make you puke too, if I started citing things. Then you’d know I’d gone through the effort of underlining stuff or worse yet, that I’d committed them to memory, for Chrissake. I’d start listing all the bits that show Holden as a really great guy, a mad guy, but a great guy, who just wants to connect with people, wants to feel less alienated and lonely, and feels mostly misunderstood as we all do in our juvenile years, and other phony commentaries like that. That he’s been a victim of child abuse, that needs help and actually, in a way, tries to get it through the whole novel and only his little sister, really, does. I would bore the hell out of you, I really would. The worst thing I could possibly do, honestly, is start comparing this to other Great American Novels. That would kill you. If I started saying, Well, for me this could honestly be on par with novels like The Great Gatsby, a novel which kills me, and kills Holden too, old sport. You’d say, ‘On par! For Chrissake!’ I’d put my hands out in front of me, all yellow-like, and say, ‘Honestly, on par. No kidding. I really do.’ Then we’d get all intellectual and talk about all sorts of writers like Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, John Dos Passos, and we’d get all excited as hell, talking to each other about it. It kills me when you get to have a good chat about books with someone who isn’t a phony and really knows what’s what, not some witty bastard who knows goddam nothing but pretends to. I hate that—I really do. But then we’d get sore with each other and I’d want to beat because it just ends up in a goddam argument rather than a good discussion. In the end we’d both walk away thinking, ‘That sonuvabitch, didn’t even listen to my side!’ That’s why you can never talk to someone intellectual for too long because they just get all passionate. It makes you wanna cry, frankly. But most people are all right, they’re only like that because they care so much about goddam books and that’s how it should be. Boy, was it hard to find a good person to talk to about books though. Boy, was it. And this isn’t no lousy book, either. I was worried, being older and everything, that I wouldn’t like it as much or think that maybe Holden was just a lousy and annoying kid, but actually, I find him relatable as ever. There’s something about his hopefulness and his despair, that swings back and forth, that’s so goddam real. Still one of my favourite books, and one of the great American novels. It really is. I’m not even kidding.
__________________________

1st reading, 2018. Frankly I tend to distrust anyone who doesn’t like this novel in the same way I distrust anyone who doesn’t like late-middle period Beatles.

Nabokov on Salinger: “By far one of the finest artists in recent years.”

The carousel scene used to prick embarrassed tears in the corner of my eyes when I read it alone in my uni bedroom.

Holden Caulfield is a mixed- up cynical teenager, getting kicked out of another prestigious school, Pencey Prep, in Pennsylvania, the irony is that this obviously intelligent, privileged, 16 year- old, is somehow flunking out, why? He doesn't care about anything, especially education, bored and feeling neglected by his wealthy, New York City family . At least Caulfield passed English class, he's always reading, his big problem, he's so unmotivated, nothing seems important to this kid (set in 1949). Holden has no real friends in school, or liking anyone there, and the sentiment is very mutual, everything is "phony", his favorite word, which he speaks and thinks constantly. When Holden's younger brother Allie, died three years ago, it marked him forever, afterwards, the boy was changed and stops believing . Getting into a fight with a much stronger opponent, his roommate Stradlater, and losing naturally no surprise to Holden, ( punishment he craved) just before sneaking out of Pencey, an institution he hates, with a fervent passion. Taking the train to New York City, his hometown, but Holden doesn't go back to his uncaring family, his father, a well- to- do lawyer, too busy for Holden, nervous mother, she wants quiet, please, older brother D.B. a Hollywood writer, younger sister Phoebe, his only confidant, and the person he loves. Checking into the Edmont Hotel in the "Big Apple", a rather shabby, rundown place, (I wouldn't recommend staying there) and then the elevator operator the sleazy Maurice , gets him a prostitute, Sunny, she's Holden's age and he kind of feels sorry for her. Gives the lady of the night, five dollars just for talking, sends her away, good deeds are always rewarded, Maurice, comes back with Sunny for more money, a dispute arises, but they leave with an extra five, and a sock in the stomach of the poorer, but wiser Holden. Chain smoking with gusto and delight, drinking in bars, (dives) like a man, where people aren't too concerned about a customers age just the color of his dough, going to a Broadway play with a very accommodating girlfriend, attending the loathsome movies and seeing all those phonies, the actors, fighting with unsmiling cab drivers , the kid is having a good time, living like a grown-up, as long as the cash lasts. But what will he do, runaway or go back and face the music...his remote parents? The bible for disgruntled teenagers, and a must read for every new generation.......P.S. the title comes from a Robert Burns poem

كلنا هولدن كولفيلد، أو زيف المجتمع، مجتمع الزيف
ـــــ
قبل أن أقرأ هذه الرواية تكوّن لدى عنها صورة أسطورية كعمل بيع منه 65 مليون نسخة منذ طبعته الأولى عام 1951 حتى الآن و تصنيفه كانجيل لجيل الغاضبين و الساخطين فى أمريكا..كما أن المنفى الإختيارى الذى اختاره المؤلف" جيروم ديفيد سالنجر" لينزوى فيه بعيدا عن المدينة فى بيئة ريفية حتى مماته هذا العام و امتناعه عن نشر أى مخطوطاته الذى سطرها فى عزلته ..و منعه تحويل روايته لعمل سينمائى طالما هو على قيد الحياة..- كل ذلك اضافة إلى أن نسخة كتابه كانت بحوزة قاتل مغنى البيتلز الشهير" جون لينون" و تصريحه بأنها كانت حجته فى القتل..كل ذلك أضاف للعمل بعدا أسطوريا..و انتظرت ان تكون الرواية قد صيغت بأسلوب سرد مركب و بأسلوب تغلب عليه الصيغة الفلسفية أو عمل يسمى بالأساس كتاب أفكار تتخذها الأجيال كمانشيتات و مبادىء تسير عليها...لكنى وجدت العمل قد كتب ببساطة و فى نفس الوقت بعمق لم أكن أتوقع ان تأتى بهذا الشكل.

بداية الرواية بضمير المتكلم، يحاول الراوى خلق صديق افتراضى يتحدث اليه بين حين وآخر، من الممكن أن يكون أنا أو أنت أو انتِ...كأنه بذلك يحاول كسر حاجز الوحده و العزلة التى فرضت عليه أو فرضها على نفسه جرّاء سخطه و نقمته على المجتمع.

الرواية تتخللها شتائم آتية من فتى مراهق..ربما لم تمر صفحة إلا و حلاّها بشتيمة له أو لغيره..كاسرا بها حاجز المجتمع المثالى المحافظ..ليقول أننا رغم ذلك لم نكن أبدا مثاليين ..ربما ندعى المثالية و من الإدعاء يتخلق الزيف كقنبلة عنقودية.

فتى مراهق يرسب فى مدرسته و يتنقل من مدرسة لخرى..و لا يجد غير الزيف فى زملائه العاطلين عن أى موهبة و الحمقى الذين يحاولون استعراض مواهبهم فى علاقات عاطفية فاشلة و تفوقهم فى مواد دراسية مملة و غير جديرة بالنفع تبعث على الغثيان...و مدرسين يدّعون الحكمة و تتجمد عقولهم على تفاصيل موادهم الدراسية الذين يدرسونها بميكانيكية بغيضة..آه نعم كذلك فى الشارع و الفنادق التى ارتادها مهجورا من المجتمع بارادته و الفتيات اللاتى صاحبهن فى المسارح أو السينمات او سائقى التاكسيات ..كلهم يضعون موادا تجميلية على وجوههم..و يضعون أقنعة تخفى باطنهم الحقيقى و المزيف...يفتعلون السعادة و يرصعون حياتهم بلآلىء التقوى و اتباح الرب فى جميع خطواتهم حتى لو لم يكونوا متدينين أصلا.

لم يكن سخطه أبدا مكتملا...خرج من دائرة السخط أخته الصغيرة فيب و أخوه المتوفى صغيرا" آلى" كبراءة تتبدّى فى الطفولة التى لم تتدنس بعد و لم تظهر عليها أعراض الحضارة...كانت مقاطع شاعرية جدا و حيوية و مليئة بالعاطفة الفياضة عندما يتحدث عن أخته فيب و أخيه آلى الذى مات صغيرا..كأنه هو العالم الذى يريده و الذى كان يريد أن يهرب اليه عند حافة المدينة يعمل أى عمل..كعامل بنزين مثلا.. مدعيا أنه اخرس و أبكم.. حتى يوفر عليه الكلمات الزائفة التى تصدر عن الزبائن أو الجيران...لكنه تنازل عن حلمه فى النهاية لصالح اخته التى كانت تريد أن تهرب معه...رضى بما هو واقع ...و انخرط فى عداد حضارة الأرقام..كلنا مجرد رقم فى بطاقة فى ملف فى أجهزة حكومية عتيقة تتحكم بمصائرنا...الرقم جاء الرقم راح..الرقم ...عليه العوض.