| The Catcher in the Rye |  | Author: J. D. Salinger
Category: Book
This item is no longer available
Rating:  3000 reviews
Sales Rank: 3690748
Media: Paperback
ASIN: B00005VJEK
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Amazon.com Review
Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent." Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins,
"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them." His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.
Product Description
A 16-year old American boy relates in his own words the experiences he goes through at school and after, and reveals with unusual candour the workings of his own mind. What does a boy in his teens think and feel about his teachers, parents, friends and acquaintances?
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 3000
 Let this one go over the cliff... July 25, 2010
Brian Page (Phoenix)
Maybe this story has simply become dated over the years because it didn't have the impact on me that I expected. This certainly isn't on the level of Huck Finn, To Kill A Mockingbird, Life of Pi, nor even The Tale Of Depereaux, but it is different than anything else I've read. Perhaps the appeal of this book is that it's written from the perspective of a teenager, in stylized teenaged writing, about teenaged issues. This could be one of those books that appeals more to a specific audience of those going through puberty than it does to the general reader. Still, Holden Caulfield seems like more of a whiner than a cynical adolescent to me.
Reading this book is like being stuck in an elevator with a sixteen year old boy for the duration. It might make for a good psychological study of that particular insanity that teenagers go through as their brains develop in the presence of an overdose of hormones, but as a story it lacks a plot. This is about a kid wandering aimlessly through his life, such as it is, both literally and existentially. It could theoretically give aid and comfort to those teens in a similar situation, but I can't imagine it helping me much when I was that age. The main character is supposed to be a young radical, smoking and drinking despite being underage, but it all seems much too tame in these modern times.
I suppose that the moral of the story is supposed to be that everyone undergoes these psychotic teenage episodes, even the preppies. However, this point is made in a monotonous, rather repetitious and boring manner as our young angster wanders about NYC looking to rutt, having just been kicked out of yet another fancy boarding school. If the rich kids have these same problems then maybe we should all stop feeling sorry for ourselves and think about poor Richard Cory. It's all just a little too ham-handed for me and it really bothers those kids who really were cool and all to have to listen to those who just think they are. Sometimes I just say crazy stuff like that, I'm a madman sometimes, I really am.
Good book but not for kids July 23, 2010
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm not really a kid but I'm writing this review through a family members account & I don't want their name on here.
I've got 5 brothers, they all say they had to read this book for school (4 had to read it in junior high, one read it in high school).
I didn't have to read it for school but happened to come across it on a vacation & ended up reading it on the plane ride home.
This book is very good & entertaining, however, while reading it I could not think of why a school would feel that it is appropriate for kids to be reading for a report.
I would never let my kids read this book while living under my roof (yea yea, I know, you can't stop your kids from doing stuff but in an ideal world where this was possible, I would never let them read it).
For an adult that wants to somewhat relive their childhood, give it a try.
While the character is very hateful & kind of an ass, some stuff he goes through is stuff most people go through so it may bring back a memory or two.
I liked this book for the plane ride but don't think I'd ever want to read it again. The character was too much of an ass & I'd rather not 'see' him again.
 James Dean as Holden Caulfield July 18, 2010
A. Knapp (USA)
Since there are so many reviews already recorded here, I just want to say how cool it would have been if a movie version would have been made for Catcher, and if James Dean would have played the title character, Holden Caulfield. And yes, I do highly recommend this coming-of-age classic.
 This is a classic?! July 16, 2010
Amaya (Nowhere)
I absolutely hated this book. There is no plot. At all. I've heard it's supposed to be a great coming-of-age story, but to me, it didn't seem like the main character changed at all. Holden Caulfield remains annoying, whiny, and obsessed with cussing and the word "phony". If I hadn't been graded on reading it, I wouldn't have even read past the first few pages. Personally, I can't understand how this book ever got to be a classic.
Please...a high school reader??? July 16, 2010
Bugs
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I thought I was purchasing a regular hardback copy of the "Cather in the Rye" and the product received was less than anticipated.
I received a book 7" X 4" that was a high school copy for a literature class at F.D. Roosevelt H.S. It really is a paperback with a new binding. Does that make it a hardback??? Technically one might say so but not in the spirit of what anyone who purchases books would call a hardback and it certainly was not worth the $15 I paid for it.
I am disappointed
Showing reviews 1-5 of 3000
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