Did you like the book CATCHER IN THE RYE?

[raccoon]

My college roommate loved it (this was in the late '60's). I read it and didn't see what the big deal was. I didn't find the protagonist likeable.

Your thoughts?

[bif]

1. One of my favorite books of all time

I try to read it once a year. It's perfectly written. Salinger's writing is amazing. I find Holden Caulfield quite amusing. He's so sarcastic and bitter, yet funny. I get different things out of it at different points in my life. First read it in high school and I'm now in my middle age. When I was younger, I just thought it was funny. Now I feel sorry for Holden. But I also find myself as cynical as he is, especially these last 7 years.

[Iris]

19. me, too. One of that characters that really stand out to me is that roommate of his.

Stradlater - the one who looks good on the outside but is a "sceret slob."

[malta blue]

2. I loved the book.

I was trapped in boarding school when I read it so i could relate.

[Richardo]

3. I didn't read it until I was in my 40s so it didn't really resonate with me.

I could appreciate the book for its writing and ground-breakingness, but I came away pretty much the same as you did. I just wanted to slap Holden around a little.

[alphafemale]

11. LOL! "Slap Holden around a little." ( I want to find your inner child and kick its little ASS!)

That was the point of the story to me, though.

Teens are incredibly self-absorbed and many have a messiah complex.

Most of them outgrow it though. :D

Salinger maybe didn't.

Outgrow it that is.

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. Yes, although it took a few readings to begin to "get it".

If I -am- getting it... He alludes to some parental abuse in a "don't ever talk about it" environment, and is caught in that loop, attempting to break out. He's unable to trust or connect with most people, and sees through their mass superficiality, being on the outside, dealing with weightier matters than the rest.

I agree, it is written perfectly from the character's POV. This is also why I couldn't bear "Frannie". It's perfect, but unbearable for the very same reason due to the person being portrayed.

[LeftinOH]

5. I read it when I was in my teens (and voluntarily, too)... I didn't get it

..and I still don't. Brilliant schmilliant.

[Zavulon]

6. I didn't like it at all.

I admit I was forced to read it, but why that book is considered a classic is beyond me. Like you, I didn't find the protagonist likeable, which means I couldn't bring myself to give a flying fuck about anything that happened.

[tigereye]

7. it was the first of it's kind, I think

now that kind of cranky adolescent, narrative voice is amazingly common.

Also it caught a lot of flack for being so offensive when it was published and it was banned quite a bit...

[Inchworm]

8. I started reading it about a month ago

Made it to the 3rd chapter. That's good for me though. I've read only the first chapter in 10s of books before I gave up or forgot about them.

Sadly, I'm not a "book reader."

:hi:

[alphafemale]

9. I think it accurately nails the often bitter, somewhat scewed, viewpoint of a young teen.

And that makes it a masterpiece.

But I think Salinger never maybe matured past that angry, bitter 14.

But it is still a great book.

[Bennyboy]

10. Not particularly.....

I have read it three times to see if there is something I missed (years apart) and still for me, it is a nice book, but the power it has over some I don't get....

[swag]

12. It was fine when I was 13 and trying to be a disaffected youth.

Haven't read it since.

I do like the roller derby skater Scratcher in the Eye, though.

[tigereye]

14. I took my son to a banned books reading a few years ago

and they read from Catcher - he missed the bad words since he hadn't heard many at the time, and didn't know they were bad. It was kind of funny how the readers warned we parents about the bad words at a banned books reading! :rofl:


That's not true anymore, sadly. He loves trying to sneak bad words past me now.


:hi:

[edbermac]

13. Read it in high school, loved it.

One of the few books I liked reading along with 1984 and Animal Farm.

[monmouth]

15. Highly over-rated, sorry I wasted my time....n/t

[triguy46]

16. Loved it from 1966 to 1972. Haven't read it since. Not sure its aged well.

[bif]

17. My wife and I even quote the book

Sometimes we'll be in bed reading and I'll say:
"Whatcha reading?"
"Goddam book."
"How is it?"
"This sentence is terrific."

My other favorite line is when he meets his brother's friend in the bar and he says: "See that flit at the bar? I was saving him for ya." WTF is that supposed to mean?

[mitchum]

54. I can relate; I have always wanted to call a band "The Goddam Lunts"

[stuntcat]

18. I liked it

I kinda felt weird about the guy, I mean I didn't like him at all in some ways and at the same time I really liked him.
On the last page I teared up a little because it was over.. that dramatic book-closing moment :p But I cry at silly stuff all the time so that doesn't mean much.
I did like the book. and in the end I loved the guy.

[LisaM]

20. No, I didn't really like it.

I always thought maybe it was a male/female thing. It's one of my boyfriend's favorites. He can relate to the character, I can't.

That said, I think there might be women who went to private school, for example, who would relate to the character and thus like the book more than I did.

[Westegg]

21. Damn near perfect...

...Read it first at 13. Love it. I re-read it every few years. I'm 45.

Personally, I'm not often interested in books featuring protagonists whom I find "likeable." I also love The Sun Also Rises, Crime & Punishment, Lolita, Wise Blood, The Great Gatsby, Vanity Fair, Portnoy's Complaint, The Executioner's Song, Ulysses, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Legs, A Fan's Notes, Tristram Shandy, Autumn of the Patriarch, L.A. Confidential, and Mrs. Dalloway. And some others.

[bif]

22. A Fan's Notes is fantastic

So are the two sequels.

[Westegg]

23. Haven't read them. I should.

[bif]

24. Well worth it

I know this is blasphemous, but they might even be better than the first book.

[RainDog]

26. also Stop Time by Conroy

that's a classic literary autobio.

[Westegg]

28. It can't end well.

[Westegg]

27. I always pay heed to the blasphemous.

[mitchum]

55. I also recommend them...

we seem to share similar tastes regarding the "likability" of protagonists. If you have not already read them, I recommend Richard Price's "Ladies Man" and "The Wanderers"
Particularly "Ladies Man"; it is, in my opinion, one of the great modern novels.

[mitchum]

56. A friend of mine, who knew both Exley and Gifford, introduced them to one another...

in an airport.
I agree; those are three very fine books.

[DemoTex]

47. Oooh, good list there Westegg. Great variation of authors, IMO!

Of your contemporary listings, I loved The Executioner's Song. I hope that you have read Mailer's Oswald's Tale too.

Flannery O'Conner makes my heart stop beating. As does Wm. Faulkner. I have read most of the works of both. Those two captured the violence and hatred of the South better than any others. More mellow, but also fantastic, were the likes of Welty, Dickey, Crews, Percy, and that whole group.

[RainDog]

25. well, it's just full of a bunch of phonies...

but that Isak Dinesen can write.

I haven't read it for a long time, but when I was younger I liked it. It wasn't *the* book for me like it is for others. Sylvia Plath was my demented muse.

...But they pulled me out of the sack,
And they stuck me together with glue.
And then I knew what to do.
I made a model of you,
A man in black with a Meinkampf look

And a love of the rack and the screw.
And I said I do, I do.
So daddy, I'm finally through.
The black telephone's off at the root,
The voices just can't worm through.

If I've killed one man, I've killed two---
The vampire who said he was you
And drank my blood for a year,
Seven years, if you want to know.
Daddy, you can lie back now.

There's a stake in your fat black heart
And the villagers never liked you.
They are dancing and stamping on you.
They always knew it was you.
Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I'm through.

...though nothing in my life was like this poem. I did think my dad was too strict and that my step mom was... whatever she was. but the general discontent was there.

[Westegg]

30. Plath wrote with straight-razors dipped in mercurochrome...

...a pitiful metaphor, I know. Best I can do. She was a genius. I ain't.

I find it amazing that some find Plath dated now. I was born after she died, but there are only a tiny handful of writers who get my pulse racing as I read them. She's one. Flannery O'Connor is another. I can't think of any others at the moment. Some Shakespeare, I guess.

[geardaddy]

29. Yes, I love that book.

Love it!

[DarkTirade]

31. Didn't particularly like it...

but then again, I was forced to read it for school, and I had a really bad teacher. So that could be why. :shrug:

[otherlander]

32. I liked it.

[tekisui]

33. I loved it.

I read it twice when I was a teenager.

Salinger's other books are even better. "Nine Stories" and "Franny and Zooey" and "Seymour: An Introduction" are great!

[FloridaJudy]

34. The original Emo kid

Some things never change.

[yorgatron]

35. if i see a copy in the bookstore,i have this compulsion to buy it...

:tinfoilhat:

[freethought]

36. Read it because it consistently shows up on these

conservative Christian "books-to-burn" lists. So I read it to see what all the fuss was about.
To this day I'm still not sure what the fuss was about, but I guess if you were around in the early 50s when the book was put out it probably caused quite the stir.

[hedgehog]

37. I read it a s a teenager and I couldn't figure out what the fuss was about.

I couldn't relate at all to Holden because I came from a background that said you had to be ready to go out and work for a living. I could not imagine having the kind of spending money Holden apparently had.

[GOPisEvil]

38. I made the mistake of reading it in my 30s.

I hated it and I had a highly negative impression of Holden Caulfield. I thought, "People name their kids after THAT asshole?".

[taught_me_patience]

39. Hell yeah... its the teenager's Bible. n/t

[Jade Fox]

40. I thought it captured the voice of adolescence.....

quite well. But I didn't finish it.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

41. liked it. read it when I was 13.

[Generic Brad]

42. Of course

It was the first book I ever read with the word "Fuck" in it.

I thought, "I could write that word and not automatically go to hell? Fuck, yeah!"

[Taverner]

43. Loved it, but I was 17

Haven't read it lately...

[Pale Blue Dot]

44. I loved it when I read it.

It's been about 23 years. I loved the passage that describes the title of the book; It was exactly how Ifelt at the time (even though I knew that it was ridiculous).

I haven't read it since high school, however.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

45. mel gibbson did

[WinkyDink]

46. Loved it. My favorite book even after my studying American and British Lit.

[begin_within]

48. I was bored by it.

I guess I just didn't "get it." Normally I love books that have "cult followings." But for some reason I just didn't see the point.

[yellowdogintexas]

49. NO nt

[ellisonz]

50. YES nt

[Reverend_Smitty]

51. I loved it when I read it when I was 16...

I particularly liked how our teacher let us read the bits with the "naughty" words out loud in class. Something so awesome about being able to say fuck in a classroom and not get in trouble. Not sure if I would connect with the protagonist today, I don't know, I'd have to give it a re-read one of these days.

[applegrove]

52. I can barely remember it. But I don't think I thought it was the be all of books.

I never bothered to read it again.

[bigwillq]

53. No. Hated it.

:puke: Whiny little brat that Holden was. He needed to get punched in the face. Yeah, violence always works! :P :)

Seriously, I hated that book. Maybe I should read it again though.

[mitchum]

57. Every time that I read it, I find Holden possibly a bit more annoying, but...

grow even more impressed with Salinger's mastery of his craft.
It is perfectly written.

[mdmc]

58. one of the best

:kick:

[NuttyFluffers]

59. it was OK when i read it as a teenager.

but sullen and angst ridden teens were such a cliche by then, the mid 90s, that it held very little impression. but then i read Deathbird by Harlan Ellison by 4th grade, so i was not easily shocked by trite expletives and nominal scenes of the illicit.

however this work is beloved, and if he moved people to a healthier emotional place all the better.

[Jamastiene]

60. Loved it.

It was one of my most favorite books growing up. I'd love to have an E-book of it and read it again.