Saralee Says
There are times when only the original will do, and J.D. Salinger is an original if nothing else. I remember sneaking around and reading Catcher in the Rye (Little Brown & Company) when I was a teen-ager and feeling very grown up and “with it,” which is a must feeling for all teen-agers. This was the book we all passed around to each other. We read it during science class and pretended we were engrossed with our science textbook. All we needed were cigarettes to complete the cool look.
Catcher in the Rye is the ultimate coming-of-age story if you have money and know your way around New York City. I loved it when I was younger; this time around I was simply impatient with the story. How many of you know 16-year-olds who flirt with the mother of a classmate. Instead of cool, it reminds me of Eddie Haskel — the schmoozer from Leave It to Beaver.
Holden Caulfield is about to be expelled from yet another elite East Coast prep school. Instead of preparing his parents for the worst, he simply leaves Pency, his prep school, and goes on a binge that includes booze, women and cigarettes. What 16-year-old wouldn’t like to be turned loose in the Big Apple?
When you read this book, ask yourself if you think Salinger hated women. If the way women are treated in Catcher in the Rye is any indication of how the author really views femininity, then all of the rumors about his relationships with the opposite sex must be true. One woman is too stupid to guess Holden’s real age, another is a prostitute, another is not aware that her husband is a homosexual, and Holden’s mother is too nervous to come to grips with reality. Ask women how they felt when they read this book as adults — do they agree with me that Salinger was a misogynist?
Do you think this book should be banned? This is a title that always gets attention by those who want to select what others should read. The language is pretty racy as the book contains an enormous amount of profanity. Were there parts of the plot that troubled you? Why didn’t Salinger tell us what happened to Holden’s brother Allie, and why was Holden closer to his younger sister Phoebe than to his older brother D.B.? How realistic is that? How much of this novel do you suspect is autobiographical considering that Salinger went to a private boarding school?
Would I encourage teen-agers to read this book? Probably, but I would encourage parents to read Catcher in the Rye at the same time. Then I would be tempted to lock up all the teen-agers and throw away the key. The bottom line is teen-agers will be rebellious, and we need books that reflect how they really feel. I think Catcher in the Rye was a definite masterpiece for my generation and will continue to be so for young people.
Larry’s Language
Everyone tells me that Catcher in the Rye is one of the major works of modern American fiction. I am not so sure, although it is clear that this book, which was published in 1951, helped create the self-absorbed, self-important teen-age culture in America. Holden Caulfield confirms every bad rumor and class-conscious bias about kids that go to eastern seaboard fancy prep schools. At least until the end of the book, Caulfield acts out the kind of snobbish, world-revolves-around-me, narrow outlook of someone born to wealth and a life of privilege.
Caulfield is a 16-year-old being kicked out of his latest prep school just a few days before Christmas vacation. He is such an antagonistic rebel that instead of waiting until Wednesday when the action will be official and his parents would be notified, he disappears from school and travels into New York City on his own. His peculiar visits with fellow students, teachers, bartenders, a prostitute, three good-time girls from Seattle, and other strangers form the basis for his acts of rebellion as Caulfield describes them in profane language that still has shock value today.
Issues and questions of alienation from others, innocence and betrayal dominate this story. Caulfield is typical of some teen-agers for whom puberty is a difficult rite of passage. He feels betrayed by everyone around him even when his contacts with them are almost non-existent. He regards himself as lonesome and views his fellow students, teachers and his family as phony, except his 10-year-old kid sister Phoebe, whom he admires greatly. The only other person in the book that Caulfield speaks well of at length is his younger brother Allie who has died from leukemia. In other words, the only people that he can relate to in any meaningful way is a much younger sister and a dead younger brother.
Another important question for this book is whether it belongs in the pantheon of great literature because of its insights into human nature. It is consistently included in the list of great American novels. It meets the basic requirement of modern fiction of a main character that progresses and changes throughout the telling of the story. In this case, however, it is in reverse as Caulfield goes from being a troubled teen-ager to an almost childlike regression instead of progressing to learning to live as an adult.
What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours, and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. Of course, Caulfield probably should have just settled for having a friend.
Coming up next is Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro.
