The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger)

J. D. Salinger
The Catcher in the Rye

A very compulsive book in that every time I put it down I wanted to pick it up again. Didn't take long to read then as quite short. It's basically a couple of days in the life a teenager who's dropping out of school (as in British school rather than American college, if you see what I mean) by seemingly deliberately flunking his subjects except for the one he enjoys. Most of the people he knows and meets he thinks are phoney and he's often taken advantage of. He's sort of naive and very innocent in a lot of ways such as his interactions with taxi drivers pimps and prostitutes which grates against what he's doing with his life and descriptions of, and to my mind darker suggestions of, sex, smoking and swearing*. He seems to hanker back to happier days and only successfully spends time with his younger sister however even she seems more grounded and mature. There seems to be a lot of analysis about this character which maybe is warranted if you can be bothered to try to understand the teenage mind but for me it's simply a brilliantly written narrative of an angst ridden teenager who's going through all the confusing times that we all did ending up hating nearly everyone and wanting to get out of his situation by dreaming of a simple and idyllic life away from all the crap he has to deal with. And who hasn't been there. I love the fact that the helpful adults aren't at all not through their fault except not remembering what it's like to be a teenager. But how many of us can? The great thing about this book is that it brings those feelings flooding back in a way that few, if no, other books have for me. I checked how old Salinger was when he wrote this (32) but a lot of the material was written years beforehand when he must've been either in or just past his teenage years which makes sense. I also love that our hero references literature that deals with similar subjects of angst innocence being put in situations you don't want and have to break out of such as Thomas Hardy who is also a brilliant writer.

To sum up a dreamer who is continually disappointed that the world doesn't deliver as promised and wants to get away from everything. In other words a teenager.

* Sex, Smoking and Swearing. The perennial themes of teenage years encapsulating hormone urges, getting out of it and rebelling. And ain't that a great name for an album in the vein of leather bristles studs and acne & sex and drugs and rock and roll.