You're a gentleman and a scholar.
The Catcher in the Rye
written by J.D. Salinger
This book is so unlike anything I have ever read before; I almost don't know what to to think of it. This book is about Holden Caulfield, a boy who can't relate to anyone. Ironically, however, I found myself relating to him even though I didn't think I would. The story begins right when Holden is kicked out of Pencey academy, the fourth school so far. The reason being that Holden doesn't "apply himself". Now Holden packs up, leaves school a couple days before Christmas break, and doesn't head strait home. He spends the extra time before he is supposed to come home in the city burning through his money.
Cut and dry this plot doesn't sound very interesting, but what makes it so fascinating and thought provoking is Holden himself. During my time with Holden I saw him interact with many different characters. He strikes up conversations with people in the lobby of his hotel, with the cab driver, and he calls up old friends and girls to spend time with them. This made me think of him as a relatively extroverted person. He hardly sleeps and focuses all his time on not being alone. But the catch is that he seems to hate everyone and everything except for a selective group of people.
He sees everyone as a "phony". Such as actors who know they are good actors and because they know that, it makes them bad actors. This is a major motif throughout his narrative. There are a million instances when he calls something out for being phony so for example;
“Grand. There's a word I really hate. It's a phony. I could puke every time I hear it.”
He sees so much insincerity in the world and he can't get through a conversation because of it. Yet he wants to really connect with someone.
Throughout the story reasons for his demeanor are never clearly revealed, but the reader starts to come to their own realizations about Holden and the meaning of this book. And I have come to the conclusion that this is a special book. I gleaned so much from my first read of it, yet I feel like the true themes draped throughout this book are over my head. This book is written in such an informal way that I was surprised by how deep it really was. This is a book that I will pick up and read again in two years time and feel like I am reading an entirely different story because of how much I would have changed and grown. Therefore my review of it may seem incomplete because it is. I am not done with this book.
