The Catcher in the Rye

I am forced to admit that I think this is a very good book. However, I do not think it is a very enjoyable book. Anyone who has studied literature realizes that, although the two categories often cross over, they certainly don’t have to. The main character of Catcher is a dissolute teenage boy named Holden Caulfield. The novel begins with Holden getting kicked out of his third boarding school in a row because he refused to apply himself in the least degree, and he spends the rest of the novel wandering around New York looking for things to do and people to talk to. It’s rather boring, but also terribly sad. Although many of Holden’s encounters seem unrelated and pointless, they ultimately weave together to present a picture of a young man who is terrified of his future, desperately wants someone who will listen to him, and finds himself without a soul to rely on. The title of the book comes from a poem Holden hears: “If a body catch a body coming through the rye.” When asked what Holden would like to be, he responds that he would like to stand at a cliff at the edge of a rye field and catch children at play if they got too close to the edge. I personally feel that Holden is terrified that he is heading towards a cliff, yet there is nobody in the rye to catch him. The book does not offer easy answers or resolutions to these problems. Holden is part of a larger group of America’s youth who grew despondent in the wake of WWII, and who saw little point to their lives. Many argue that Holden is not a likeable character, and they’re right. There’s this idea going round that main characters in novels should represent the sort of person that we want to be, but Holden represents that sort of person that we secretly already know we are. When I’m honest with myself, I see far more of Holden Caulfield in me than I see of Harry Potter. It’s a revelation that is at once sad and liberating, for it makes me a part of a larger human experience of shared anxiety and doubt. All in all I think this book is worth reading if you want to feel all those human things, and are willing to accept an ending which, like endings in life, can’t be described as satisfying or happy. Catcher is one of the most famous novels of the 20^th century, and I believe it deserves to be so for the way it captures so many tragic elements shared by so many in this big thing we call humanity.

Rating: 7/10

Read this book if: You are willing to read deeply, look for metaphor and symbolism, and connect with the sorrow, anxiety, and fear that exist under the surface of every human life.

Don’t read this book if: You are bothered by pervasive mild profanity (Holden is constantly swearing, but they’re pretty soft curse words); or you like books with engaging plots, likeable characters, or happy endings (you won’t find those here).