Last Modified:
Thursday, 21-Oct-2010 16:04:07 PDT
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
So, I'm reading this book -- five, six … twenty pages -- What the heck is this book about? I mean, I like it, it's really interesting. JD certainly does a great job of describing the characters in his dormitory. But what is this book about? And what the heck is a "Catcher in the Rye???"
As it turns out, the later does get explained ... I like the way it is explained and it's worth the wait so I'm not gonna tell ya here. And just what the book is about, I mean if you want a one sentence tagline or even a blurb -- it wouldn't really explain the book. But I'll try, the important thing to know is the book's backbone is a string of tangenting thoughts... perhaps a three day moment in time as an adolescent stumbles toward adulthood. Honest, raw, sometimes obscene reflections of an eighteen-year-old trying to make sense of people, sex, education, his own life. I can see why this book has been found to be controversial, even in the first 100 pages the main character displays a lot more delinquencies than redeeming qualities. But then again, our main character must admit to himself that he is depressed, that even the people he hates, he ends up missing them somehow. And over all, the moments of beauty, I think they shine and shine hard. It's a good book for an older teen, junior year etc. Especially, a teen who fancy's himself/herself too smart for school. Not that there any hard and fast answers here. There aren't -- and there could have easily been. Old JD could have easily wound this up with some classic lessons learned, I mean even spelled it out as to be clear -- and it'd still be a good book. And it's not that the lessons aren't there -- they're just subtle, he respects the reader to pull them out of the tangents and corners.