Review: The Catcher in the Rye

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

“The Catcher in the Rye,” by J. D. Salinger, is a coming-of-age novel about Holden Caulfield, who runs around New York City for several days following his flunking out yet another private school.

A perennial entry on the banned book list, Catcher remains in pop culture largely due to English teachers continuing to assign it, despite Holden and his world being so far removed from teens today.

I never read it in junior high, high school or college. So out of curiosity, I listen to the audiobook on YouTube when I was 25.

I loathed Holden and just wanted to slap him. My visceral hate of him, I realized was due to being too much like him, always complaining and generally being a jerk to everyone.

I vowed to change myself after that first reading, and while still a work in progress, I’ve gotten over my Holden ness.

I’m now pushing 40 and decided to read the book.

While I still think he is the epitome of white male privilege and all his problems stem from his pushing everyone away and not wanting to accept his brother’s death and his growing up, with the distance of age I didn’t completely hate him.

Granted, he’s still the whiny brat I remember, who constantly throws fits or leaves when he’s not the center of attention. But with the distance and experience of age, I see him fir who he is, a scared little boy playing at being an adult until things get too real for him.

Also, he’s suffering a psychotic break and is screaming for help from everyone. However, this doesn’t excuse his bad behavior such as narcissism, superficiality, hypocrisy, negativity, and habitual lying.

Holden and the other characters are as one-dimensional as they come, and so much of the story is made up of Holden’s inane ramblings about things he thinks are profound but are mundane and boring.

Holden says he hates people who repeat themselves yet does so himself, often only adding his favorite words (crumby, damn , goddamn). For someone who claims to be smart, his vocabulary is stunted.

While I get the importance of this book, I just didn’t like it and don’t see why it’s a “classic,” especially when the topic has been covered better on countless other books.

I give The Catcher in the Rye 1.0 out of 5.0 stars.

If you’ve never read this book, you aren’t missing much.

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