Type of bind: Hardcover
EAN num: 9780241900970
ISBN number: 0241900972
Label: Little, Brown and Company
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
Page Count: 256
Printing Date: 1951
Publishing house: Little, Brown and Company
Sale Popularity Level: 469185
Studio: Little, Brown and Company
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Rated by buyers 
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I suspect that I'm not the only member of Generation X who should've read this book while young, but didn't, and have now rediscovered it as a middle-aged adult. I have a vague recollection this book was assigned reading when I was in college. I probably skimmed it, wrote a paper about it, got my passing C grade, and moved on, as I did with many a reading assignment in the `80s.
I'm afraid I would've enjoyed it more, had I not been influenced by all the hype. There's only one thing worse than assigned reading by a professor, and that is recommended reading from family or friends. The childish rebel in us all wants to do the opposite of what we're told we should do. This is also one of those books that people my age are always being asked whether they've read or not, particularly male English majors like myself, and then worse being told they should read it, usually by some phony uncle who got way more out of it back in his day because of what was considered in its time to be rebellious, controversial language. The funny thing is, phony (to use the main character Holden Caufield's favorite adjective) uncles like these seem to have missed the book's main message, which was perhaps hidden by their excitement over the blunt teen colloquialisms of that era.
To me, this book should teach a lesson to the reader that one shouldn't try to ship their kids off to schools to rid themselves of the hassles of parenthood when those kids are unwilling or uncertain about it. Such action puts parents at risk, after becoming empty-nesters, of wishing they'd spent more time with their kids and had developed better relationships with them. This book is filled with conversational language and stream-of-consciousness writing style that, while entertaining, masks the overall message of the importance of family.
While at very first glance, one might think the protagonist's cynicism is hilarious, but upon further discovery one realizes it is incredibly sad. Likewise, on the surface it appears to be a simple story of a child struggling with becoming an adult, when in fact it is a deeper tale of neglect, and of a depressed child being "pushed out of the nest" before ready. When Holden hears the little kid singing the "catcher in the rye" song, and it makes him feel better, it's because the scene symbolizes his yearning to be a happy child with the comfort of his family nearby. Holden's parents continually want to ship him off to any boarding school who will take him, which not only shows they don't care much for him, but aren't willing to put in the effort to prepare him for the challenges of adulthood. One would think his parents would want to maximize their time with him, having lost another child previously, but the opposite has occurred.
At age 16, Holden wants what he's never been able to get -the love of his parents. Although they've provided for him well, it is apparent that he does not value being sent to the finest schools, having the finest clothing, etc., and instead contemplates moving to Colorado for a more modest life devoid of such superficial things and people. He decides to stay home for one reason only, and that is to be able to spend time with the one family member who returns his unconditional love, his little sister Phoebe.
Maybe the moral lesson to be learned is that one should consider himself lucky if he can count on his hand one relative with whom it is important for him to maintain a meaningful relationship with, one that includes unconditional love; and that to be a wealthy person one needs much more than material things or the "advantages" of a prep school education.
Rated by buyers 
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I believe that works of art, be it sculpture, painting, music or literature are a product of their time. Those that are destined for greatness are rediscovered by sucessive generations with Michagelo, Van Gogh, Mozart, and Shakespeare as examples. Salinger's works in contrast, seems dated and aimed squarely at the angst of pampered American Baby-Boomers.
Although I enjoyed this book as an adolescent, a recent re-reading of it made it seem self important and irrelevant. I actually wanted the main charecter to shut up and get over himself.
I imagine Holden as a current day overweight, balding, middle manager working in MidTown, with and ex wife, drinking problem, large pharmacy bill, and chip on his shoulder caused by the world doing him wrong.
To me, this novel has not stood that test of time that some other great works from the era such as Slaughter House 5, and Lord of the Flies have.
Rated by buyers -
To give "The Catcher in the Rye" 5 stars is like giving "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare" 5 stars. I'm not kidding.
I read "The Catcher in the Rye" in the 8th grade. And, okay, I was a little bit more than entranced by the (shocking!) use of profanity. This was, after all, 1968.
But even more, I was mesmerized and enthralled, I was even swept off my little flat feet, by Holden's sensitivity, his absolute purity of heart. Okay, he does wrong things, he engages a prostitute, he flunks out of a very expensive private school when he knows his poor parents have already been put through absolute hell (his younger brother Allie dies of leukemia at the age of 13 and this has already happened at the time the book is being narrated). But at the same time, he is an innocent. He is caught up in place and time that he can't make sense of, simply because he is who he is. He cares, and he tries to take care of others who are lost and floundering. It is so obvious that he is a diamond among rhinestones.
So he doesn't fit in anywhere, and neither do most of us. We're just trying to find our way. This is one of the most brilliant studies of adolesence ever written. Holden feels, he lives and breathes, he is, for all his flaws, or maybe even because of them, almost a Christlike figure.
J.D. Salinger wrote a book about an adolescent who was, in his way, much like an archetype of innocence. For this he is should be lauded as a literary genius. This book should be taught everywhere as a sort of guidebook to values clarification for the youth of America.
Totally aside from that, it is very funny and compulsively readable. No one can possibly be bored with this book, despite its seeming lack of plot.
"The Catcher in the Rye" is a life-changing book. Read it. You will never be the same.
Rated by buyers -
its a great book for a person who feel they are a outcast of society and no ones understands how it feels to be so alone well this book is for you its bout a jaded young man named Holden Caulfield who's liberal w/ profanity so if ur easily afiend by profanity and portrayal of sexuality and teenage angst then this book is not for you by if you want ur mind split wide open then this is the book for you
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