BOOK REVIEW 'The Catcher in the Rye'

The Catcher in the Rye

By: J.D. Salinger

Full steam ahead into the classics! 

To start off, what makes a classic a classic? There has to be that one thing about it that makes the book stand out in the genre and people say, "Wow, this author was a genius." For Catcher in the Rye, that quality definitely isn't the fast paced plot, because there isn't one, or the Romeo worthy hunk that Holden Caulfield, because he's got more problems than Romeo when he heard Juliet died. For me, it's the voice. Salinger did an absolutely beautiful job creating the voice for Holden inside his head. The way he sees the world, how he reacts to it, and the greater underlying meaning of his words that I'm not even sure out main character knows is there. The motivation for this actions that Holden doesn't even know. 

The word 'goddamn' is used 255 times in a 277 pages book. Just think about that for a minute. That nearly one swear per page. Some may say that's obscene and that teenagers shouldn't be reading that kind of language, to 'preserve their innocence' so to speak. I personally have never had a problem with swearing in a novel as long as it has a purpose and isn't just there. For me, the language in this novel is the best part of it. If it weren't included, then the entire book would be nothing but a 17 year old walking around New York by himself and you wouldn't really feel for Holden. His thoughts are what put you into the story and his thoughts include swear words. 

As a character, Holden is an unreliable narrator, bitter, and, to be honest, kind of annoying. That's his character, and there would be no novel without it. The entire novel revolves around him and his personality traits fighting their way through the lonely and cold world. He does things that no one else would do, and sees importance in things that other walk past unconcerned about. That's the novel. Him walking around New York, passed all the phonies and childhood innocence, mental state slowly detraining, until he completely snaps. There's no big intense moments, romance, earth-shattering plot twists, or anything else that normally causes people to read books in 2013, but that doesn't make it bad. Using the words of my school newspaper advisor, Mr. Farrell, sometimes you have to rate a book on what it is, not what it's not. If I'm rating The Catcher in the Rye on what it is, it's magnificent. 

Pages: 277 

Read In: Like a month? (school time)

Rating: 8/10

Ages: 14 + up

The Four Catagories: teenage problems, death? (kind of?)