Catcher in the Rye

I like it. It's not my #1 but it's good.

I think the reason it gets a lot of hate is it was over-praised as a "great American novel" (a bit like the Great Gatsby) and then suffered a backlash as a result.

My favourite Salinger are the short stories,

For Esme With Love And Squalor &
A Perfect Day For Bananafish

Seymour - An Introduction is also pretty good.

Yeah, you came from reddit if that's all the insight you have, any
highschooler could come up with that surface-level analysis

nope, it's tightly structured with a clear timeline and a nice central image for the reader to hold onto. good example of first-person writing, and not, by any means, a "bad book." people hate on it for being "entry level" but who cares? my only advice is to not stop your literary development at one kind of book. keep exploring literature and finding new favorites. you may "grow out of" catcher in the rye, or you may always remember it fondly. stay open, and keep enjoying reading.

>any highschooler could come up with that surface-level analysis
last time i read it I was 17 so that'd make sense. i'm just trying to start a conversation, butt boy. so you wanna take this opportunity to enlighten me with your superior point of view? you probably have a better grasp and more in-depth analysis of the book in your pocket.

It's a good book, but you have to remember that people's appreciation for the book depends on their ability to empathize with Holden since the book primarily focuses on that young adult angst. If you've never experienced that angst or cannot understand it (like a sizable portion of Veeky Forums), it's a shit book.

i would because its actually THE catcher in the rye

hurumph

ou didn't miss anything. The book is severely overrated.

There's three ways to read it:

1 As a face-value sympathy nostalgia story.

2 As a criticism of the above.

3 As an allegory for PTSD from the war.

Thing is, if the author intended either 2 or 3, he failed, because nearly everyone interprets it via option 1. And if you take option 1 as the intention, that you're supposed to sympathize with Holden about how tough it is to grow up, the book is, in my opinion, terrible.

Please don't let crap like Catcher in the Rye color your opinion of the "Classics" in general. A lot of them are great. Some, like Catcher, are inexplicably propped up by decades of hype and absurdity. They're recursively classics, only because teachers forced students to read them in school and told those students this was the apex of writing (it's not). Some of those students then became teachers and the cycle continued. It still continues. Bad books, and books without cultural or philosophical, literary relevance are still pushed today because of this problem. And yet, many of the classics are legitimately timeless works of art. Just not this one.

I won't make fun of you but I'd recommend to the FBI that you be put on a watchlist.

This is the plebbiest reaction to this book I've ever read.

Go back

The greatest American novel. There's really no competition except for Huck Finn.

I was on vacation once and found a collection of his short stories. I remember really liking them, and I particularly remember the scene from "To Esme" where the main character is chain smoking and each time he touches his gums they bleed. Good stuff.

I didn't know Adam Gopnik posts on Veeky Forums.

Dunno who that is, but there really is no competition other than Twain and Faulkner and Salinger bests both of them

You're a basic bitch

Did it ever make you want to go shoot a hippie?

it's a great book. just gets a lot of shit 'cause of how famous it is and lots of high schools make you read it.
Holden is hilarious as fuck, sensitive and an intellectual.

and people always barrow his clothes n shit. that says a lot :o)

kek. two other guys killed someone 'cause of it too lol. Salinger wrote it while at war so it has this like, subliminal kill people element thingie that resonated with the fuck-ups that followed through

Sort of. Salinger regretted writing Catcher in the Rye. Read Franny and Zooey

he regretted that he applied psychological techniques into the writing that would make people like it, therefore making him famous lol

it's a great book standing alone, but it should really be read in the context of salinger's other work, because it all goes together and deals with serious issues very beautifully.

yes, its just a bunch of whining, its trash

hating on it is just a meme

It serves its purpose, which is to get adolescent boys through tough times.

kekked hard at the pic

A Perfect Day for Bananafish is a great little story. It makes me sad.

I don't know and don't care and neither should you. I think it was a good book, would recommend and read again.

>Catcher in the Rye
>10th grader trying to look sophisticated spotted

I only enjoyed the rape desu

Yeah, but you shouldn't care. Like what you like.

its a great read, but you should look to more complex literature as an adult man user. I love the Count of Monte Cristo but I wouldn't say its my favorite novel as an adult without feeling embarrassed

I loved the ending where he's watching his sister on the merry go round. I started crying a bit no idea why. Pls explain smarties

That final bit really sums up the book. Holden isolates himself from his loved one and from ever enjoying anything. He can't engage in innocent activities like carousels because he feels like he lost his own. All book long he iterates the various losses of innocence he's encountered, and growing up scares him. It's all right there in the final few pages of the book.

Meant to reply to this user

I won't. It's a really good book.

I always dislike this analysis, especially if people praise the book in this way, because it's just stupid to praise it for that. Like the whole book is just a portrait of angst for no reason, and that's somehow worthwhile.
The worst part of it though, is that it's just wrong. Holden doesn't act in a way that supports this sort of reaction. It's like if someone was talking about spongebob, and said they dislike spongebob as a character because he's too mean. It's just not a reasonable response if you read the book (recently.) even if your comprehension is shit.

You realize the sister was a figment of his imagination right?

I apreciate it for how the problem of fading out adolescence is described.

Holden = hold on
Wants to stop growing into an adult.

He also clings to the things from the past, the things he is familar with. That is why he is looking for the ducks he saw years ago. But since it is winter they left their environment familar to them. So he wonders where they go.

So now Holden's environment is changing and he doesn't know where to go.