Monday, October 11, 2010

Book 57: The Catcher in the Rye and Book Stats.

Title: The Catcher in the Rye
Author: J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)

First Published: 1951
My Edition: Little, Brown Books (seen at left)
Pages: 214

Other Works Include: Nine Stories (1953), Franny and Zooey (1961), Raise High the Roof Beam (1963)

This is another re-read for me. Salinger's novel was required reading as part of my high school's eleventh grade curriculum. Had I not read it then, I doubt I ever would have. Just knowing what it is about wouldn't have appealed to me then.

But I am glad we read it. As a high schooler, I really loved the angsty Holden Caufield. I related to him and found a lot of similarities between how he viewed the world and how I viewed it. However, I was one of a few students in my class that liked the novel when we finished it. A lot of my classmates found Holden to be whiny and annoying.

I have heard that when people who loved this novel as a teenager re-read it at an older age, they hate it. I hope that doesn't happen, since I have always considered this one of my "favorites."

In any case, I am looking forward to my second dabble into Salinger. I own a copy of Franny and Zooey, but haven't read it.

8 comments:

  1. I just re-read this book a couple of weeks ago to read it with my students, and I liked it more now. However, you are the first person I've actually heard of enjoying it when you were in high school. I didn't read it for school, I read it because John Green was doing a sort of book group for it on YouTube. Either way, I enjoyed it.

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  2. Ironically, I've read this twice - in 2001 and then again back in February, and both times it made no impression on me at all. I didn't remember a word from my 2001 read, and I barely remember the 2010 reread already...

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  3. I can definitely see not loving this if I re-read it when I'm older. I think that part of its allure is that adults don't "understand" what he's going through. I guess I'll have to see in a decade or so.
    I would highly recommend both Franny and Zooey and Salinger's Nine Stories. I loved both books even more than Catcher.

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  4. I was one who disliked it upon rereading, but I liked it the first two times I read it (ages 16 and 20).

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  5. This one's on my 120 list. I hear it's really good?

    I have no idea what it's about, but I kind of like not knowing until I open the book. :-)

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  6. I didn't read this book till I was an adult and I hated it. I read it because I was teaching troubled youth in a boarding school and it was a favorite of almost every boy there. So even though I didn't like it, I knew it had worth if it could get boys like that to enjoy reading. It really just wasn't for me.

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  7. I didn't read Catcher in the Rye in high school (somehow managed to escape that), but decided I had to remedy holes in my reading a few years ago. I appreciated it. It was a quick read. I guess I understood why some people would have enjoyed it. But I didn't really like it. Maybe it's partially because I was well out of my angsty teens by the time I read it?

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  8. To read this book, you need to be realistic, and empathetic.

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