Catcher in the Rye Review

So I sort of started reading this book the other day. It was by some guy called JD Salinger who had only gone and written about teenage angst in the 50s. I mean, the book was great and all, but every so often the confessional, colloquial, stream of consciousness style of writing could get a little annoying. The protagonist was this great kid called Holden Caulfield, you'd like him if you ever met him. Not much happens in the book, it's sort of mainly about Caulfield's feelings - and boy, does that kid have god damn feelings. He has so many god damn feelings that he fails classes (again) and is about to get kicked out of school. The only subject he passes is English. Knowing he has to leave Pencey and all of it's phonies anyway, he leaves after a fight with his room-mate and goes on a weekend of adventure in New York.

The trouble with old Caulfield, though, is that he is just too god damn sensitive to enjoy himself. He is too wrapped up in his own thoughts about where the ducks go in winter, or about his deceased brother Allie and the repercussions of that death on his family to really enjoy or succeed in anything. He happily admits to lying to make himself appear more interesting, and frequently uses different names for himself to the dubious characters he meets. He feels alienated from everyone around him and wants to be someone more exciting than old Holden Caulfield, the grieving kid who lies a lot, flunks classes and annoys girls with his overbearing cynicism. Caulfield's heroes in the book are his dead younger brother Allie, his mildly eccentric yet incredibly perceptive younger sister Phoebe and his older brother: the talented Hollywood "prostitute" writer DB. Once his dough runs out Caulfield breaks into his own home and wakes up old Phoebe. The two have a talk and Phoebe is sore with him for failing school again. She angrily tells him that he doesn't like anything and has no direction. It is then that he tells her that he wants to be the catcher in the rye, someone who saves children from falling into adulthood. He wishes to catch them and return them to innocence. What he doesn't realise is that he has misheard Robert Burns' Comin' Through the Rye poem and that there is no hero that saves. He also doesn't realise it will be Phoebe who will save him from his breakdown by getting him to return home, admit he has problems and get the help he needs.

The Catcher in the Rye was a book written for adults which explained to them the gap between childhood and adulthood. At the time the book was written teenage angst was something ignored and barely seen out of the corner of a parents eye. To most families it didn't exist and wasn't understood, but old JD understood alright. He wrote a book that became a god damn best seller he understood so god damn well. The book became popular with teenagers the world over who have learnt that having doubts is OK and being lost for a while is OK too because, just like those ducks in winter, you will eventually make it back to the place you want to be.