Book Review: The Catcher in the Rye is one of those marmite books, readers love it or hate it. I'm in the first camp, but why? I don't identify with Holden. We have almost no similarities. Of course I can relate to teenage angst, but mine was completely different. I can understand Holden, however, and can see him slowly falling apart, falling into a quicksand of depression, with no way to stop or control it. Some readers whine about his whining, but he isn't -- he's disintegrating. "Disappearing." He's sad, and that is relatable. If your sense of humor extends to sarcasm, he's also funny as hell. Alternately, he's despairing and vulnerable as hell. Some readers may see the ducks in Central Park, Allie's baseball glove, Holden's red hat as symbols, but maybe not, they don't have to represent anything. Each is simply part of Holden's personality, his mental issues, his unconscious. He clings to Allie's baseball glove as part of Allie, a memory, of simpler, happier times past, of childhood. Holden worries about the ducks, obsesses actually, because he's worried about everyone weak and helpless, like the children in the rye, like himself. Holden likes his hat because it's unique and different, makes him an individual, shows he doesn't care what people think, although he really does. Holden wants everything to stop changing: "Certain things they should stay the way they are ... I know that's impossible, but it's too bad anyway." Change involves growing up, losing loved ones, everyone becoming different people. The Catcher in the Rye is best read between the ages of 13 and 18 (the same ages when our musical tastes form). But it's rewarding at any age, because although this is a book about a teenager, and a teenager's confusion, it was written by a man who had survived a war. (Salinger landed on D-Day, fought in the Battle of the Bulge (the bloodiest U.S. battle in World War II), and helped liberate Dachau.) Somehow, those experiences are also part of Holden Caulfield and part of The Catcher in the Rye. [5★]
Rereading books once enjoyed is an interesting experiment. One, it may not be the story or characters as you have been remembering them; two, the impact, or what you thought important, may be quite different second time around. Two faves of mine may be deserving of taking a third read at this point of my life (never mind what that may mean). Those novels are The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker, and The Golden Notebook, by Doris Lessing. At the least, such an experiment gives one pause about memories of events in the past that you are sure occurred in a particular way. Certainty, in general, may not be a certain thing!
ReplyDeleteThe changing photos are a nice treat.
Yes! All my re-reads have been rewarding, even tho I don't do it a lot. I have both the novels you named on my shelf & look forward to reading them for the *first* time.
ReplyDeleteWell said! Disintegrating is a good way of putting it. Interestingly, the whining struck me stronger the first time I read it - clearly it wasn't all I felt as I then went on to explore Salinger deeper but this time I felt the confusion and sadness much stronger - so much so that I was actually crying, which rarely happens when I read.
ReplyDeleteGood to see you here! For all the hype, I think Catcher is underrated. It's not just a teenage book, tho if read at the right age it can have an even stronger impact. As an adult there's even more to find in it.
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