This book kills me. Honestly, it knocks me out.

posted Aug 21, 2007 at 1:35PM

Over 35 years have passed since I first read Catcher in the Rye, and I can honestly say my impression of our hero Holden Caulfield has plummeted. At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, I found his bitterness, resentment and hostility annoying. The world is against him, his problems are someone else’s fault, he’s a legend in his own mind, almost everyone around him is a phony while only he — through his skewered sense of self — sees how the world as it actually is… I could go on. Still, a classic book ideal for group or classroom discussion. Read it, just to say you did.

posted Apr 22, 2008 at 4:04PM

Holden Caulfield has become the adolescent voice of every generation since The Catcher in the Rye was published in 1951. He is an angst-filled teenager who has just been kicked out of yet another prep school. To vent his confusion and disillusionment, he runs off for a wild weekend in New York City. Holden desperately wants to be a grown-up—he checks into a hotel room, gets a drink at a club, goes on a date with a girl—but he’s only sixteen years old, and he can’t resist sneaking home to visit his kid sister. Holden is cynical, wishy-washy, lonesome, and angry—in other words, he’s having the emotional adolescence that we all can remember and relate with. The Catcher in the Rye is also a portrait of upper-class New York society in the 1950s, but Holden’s slangy narrative voice and his wryly acute observations ring true even in the twenty-first century.

posted Jun 26, 2009 at 3:51PM

Holden Caulfield cannot be blamed for rejecting the world. He sees people so honestly. After realizing that most of the people around him are phony, including himself, he loses it.

posted Dec 30, 2009 at 10:53AM

Holden is a negative teenager who has given up on life. He just doesn't seem to care anymore. The whole thing that keeps him going is his kid sister. After being expelled AGAIN, Holden decides to to an adventure to New York City where he meets all kinds of people and comes to realize that he may need help. Holden's tone of voice and dry humor make the book all worth it.

posted Apr 25, 2010 at 1:18AM

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