Catcher in the Rye

To you and everyone else who likes it: Why? What scene was the most important to you? For me, it was when Holden sees "Fuck you" written on the stairs at Phoebe's school.

How old are you OP? I've heard it said over and over its a great book to read while youre in High School, but will mean very little once you've grown up.

hated it

I've read it twelve times, and I've always hated people's interpretation that it's about the pain of growing up. Sure, that's a factor, but for me it was an extremely refreshing, accurate portrayal of mental illness. I have OCD and have a tendency to get extremely manic, and I thought that everything Holden thought, said, and did was very representative of actual experiences of mentally ill people.

I'm 17. I read it for the first time when I was 12. My mom actually recommended to me, and she read it for the first time when she was 30 and loved it. Just my two cents; not trying to discredit your opinion.

Most people read Cather in the Rye as angsty teenagers so that book resonates with them.
Adults typically aren't so angsty.

wew the redditors are in full force today

Maybe I'm misinterpreting the book, but I have never been able to understand people's assertion that Holden is "angsty." I think he feels trapped, anxious, isolated, and confused. He's not angry; he's constantly trying to swim upstream. He's arguably got an untreated mental illness and unresolved trauma from the death of his brother.

The most important scene to me is when Holden is walking to Phoebe's school after sleeping on a bench in Central Station and he starts having his mental breakdown.

Good one. What's your opinion on the duck scene?

When Holden is asking the Taxi driver about the ducks? It doesn't particularly stand out for me. I like the part where Holden is thinking about escaping NY and hitchhiking out to the mid-west where he'll pretend to be deaf and mute and work at a gas station.

Do you really think a redditor is going to mention the jewishness of the OP's book?

ducks do stay late into winter. they probably go south when the water freezes over completely though.

I won't rain on your parade or criticize your point of view but I absolutely hate Holden Caulfield. He's whiny little bitch in my opinion. There are tons to pick from for my own experiences, but one that always comes back to me is Hatchet. Lost in the wilderness and fending for yourself, developing skills from memory, such lasting analogies for growing up and becoming independent.

What bothers me about the book is, ya Holden's messed up, but not really THAT messed up. He's just an annoying level of "kind of has a hard life".

yes

>Truly, I have become The Catcher in the Rye
Seriously?

Your reaction when he gave old Jane a buzz

I did not like a single thing about it

I read it when I was 14 and I liked it, even though I thought Holden was a bit of a dick. Nonetheless my friends and I proceeded to do the same teenage-shit he did, because just like Holden, we were left to roam free in a city with money in our pockets and minimal responsibilities.

We drank, we smoked, we were annoying, we called others fake as if we were better. A friend of mine won the Holden LARP contest we lived back then when he moved to the countryside at the age of 17 to live with a girl he knew for a solid 3 months. He took 2 hour long bus rides to school every day for a year because teenagers are often retarded and without parental guidance they will fuck things up.

That's what the book is about in my opinion. The adventures of a kid in a huge city with too much freedom and money. I get it when people say it's about mental illness and such, but then most teenagers are "depressed" half the time and they'll do fucked up shit for the hell of it.

I haven't thought much about it until I was long done with youthful retardation but it was a hard realization. I was such a dick.

Last read it when I was 14. Should I re-read?

I really liked it when I read it in junior high and then in high school, so I should probably read it again as an adult. Thanks for reminding me.

I don't know

it's a fine book, but Salinger was better at short stories

>angsty
Yea I think I agree and that's why I don't like it, I never feel that way.
However, when he's with his sister at the end of the book I got emotional and felt the need to text my younger sister. I'm gonna text her right now too. I don't think anybody can understand that part unless they have a younger sibling they love
>I have never been able to understand people's assertion that Holden is "angsty." I think he feels trapped, anxious, isolated, and confused.
But that's what angsty is

>A friend of mine won the Holden LARP contest we lived back then when he moved to the countryside at the age of 17 to live with a girl he knew for a solid 3 months.
Good story user, that part made me chuckle it's a real Holden thing to do

I don't know

>Not liking Catcher in the Rye because Holden is "too whiny."

This has always been a sign to me that someone is a total idiot.

>Honest thoughts?
There is no piece of popular literature I loathe more. If you are sentient at all, it's like fingernails scraped slowly down a very long chalkboard.

I read it a long time ago as a kid and remember absolutely hating it. Years later, more recently, went through it and was just appalled by how cringy and bad it was. It is vapid and immature and has no place on high school reading lists.

It's alright, though not as good as I thought it was when I first read it back in the 10th grade. To me now it's very hit or miss.

I appreciate its themes and the kind of message it's trying to portray (which is interesting, because I ususally despise works whose messages boil down to "muh adult authority figures", such as the 1968 British movie If...). However, thats as far as I can go with immediate praise. I do dislike things like the lack of focus, and how immature the novel comes off to me, despite the praise I just gave it.

The same applies to its main character and narrator, Holden. Is he well written, nuanced, and an in-depth look at not only adult society but also the teenage mind? Or is he an incompetent, obnoxious, pretentious pseudo-intellectual? Are his complaints about phonies valid, or are they just used as scapegoats in order for him to blame someone else for his own mistakes? Is his hipocrisy, the fact that he himself counts as a phony, a result of bad writing, or was it intentional, as a way for the author to also convey that Holden is, in fact, not supposed to be a role model? To me, it's all of the above. And now you know why I love and also hate this novel.

> Everyone whose opinions I don't agree with is an idiot: A complete moron's guide to internet discussion.

He's right though, you know

Which one?

Good book. I enjoy Salinger's other works more though.

The one about people who dislike Catcher because Holden is whiny. He's not supposed to be your personal Jesus Christ, people. That's the fat lady

I agree, that was one of the parts that resonated the most with me, having first read it when I was almost 18. It's pretty much the synthesis of Holden's greatest affliction — the brutal, inexorable loss of innocence — and it's a great compliment to the title's meaning. Also, this:

Nice.

Excellent book but not even Salinger's best.

It's amazing how many people miss the incest undertones
postflaviana.org/a-pedophile-fantasy-in-the-rye/

I would just say it's shit. Maybe that's just because I hate Holden so much and I'm letting that cloud my judgment.

family is important. thats also why I liked Faulkners work like the Sound and the Fury

>jew laces his book with subversive incestuous undertones
Imagine my shock.

Read it in Highschool, and all my classmates hated it except me. they all said holden was a whiny, pretentious brat, which sucked because i really identified with him; I really felt like he was just looking for people to be genuine.

Was thinking of picking up Franny and Zooey. Is it any/as good?

Better really

Holden Caulfield is a fuccboi.

Franny and Zooey is excellent

I really don't have much to say about it other than the feeling I got when Holden was in his teacher's apartment. When that speech started to come on about 'the fall' that was coming, I felt that possibly this would be the narrative payoff for Holden's shortcomings or whatever, but then it just came out sort of empty, I felt like Holden did in that moment; where you feel you should be taking something from it but really you're not.

It reminded me of when I left school after having a shaky 2 years of flunking classes and shit. The head of our yeargroup pulled me aside and gave me a short talk, probably less than a minute. It felt like he thought it was a 'moment' that I would remember for years, like he honestly felt he was making an impact on a young person's life.

I don't remember a word he said.

Veeky Forums has become stagnant in dealing with this book

Hatchet fucking sucks bro

I've always thought it wonderfully sincere. The naysayers are completely correct Holden is an insufferable little shit. Every bit the phoney that he accuses others of being. Still, he's not irredeemable, I've got quite a soft spot for him. He's just a dumb kid who thinks he knows a hell of a lot more than he does. But that archetype exists for a reason anyone who's met a teenager could tell you that of their virtues wisdom and humbleness are not the most conspicuous.
So yes the novels angsty and lame but if reading it doesn't give you at least a fond nostalgia for those awkward teenage years. Then either you lack the self-awareness to realise that Holden is you and your friends or you're filled with so much bitterness that you really don't have a leg to stand on when criticizing holden.

This. If you're old enough to be in primary school, you should know birds fly south for the winter. It's common sense. He's a retarded little brat.

>Salinger is pedo
>goes to war
>cuked by Chaplin
>loses it
>writes pained-filled book
>so filled with shit they use it in MKUltra

Franny and Zooey is great. The book is two pieces, a short story (about 40 pages if I remember right) called Franny that's hands-down the best thing Salinger ever wrote, and a novella called Zooey that's pretty good, but not quite as compelling. It also fits together with Nine Stories, since both books are all about members of the same family.

Overall, 9/10 would recommend.

For phonies.