Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
I put off writing this review for a long time. Catcher in the Rye is meant to be a classic, and I’d heard great things about it, yet I struggled through every page thinking the lead character was a complete moron. I thought I was missing something profound about the book, but because it is so highly regarded by so many, a bit of me didn’t want to post my slating review in case I’d missed the plot entirely.
…turns out, I hadn’t really missed anything. The lead character IS a complete moron.
What I wasn’t expecting to hear from my bookgroup who discussed the book, was that this is a book that many people read and re-read through their lives, and have very different experiences each time. Young readers admired his assurance, people in their 20s were annoyed by his cockiness, people in their 30s recognised some of their own hot-headedness when they were that age, and those in their 40s/50s were reminded of their own teenage offspring…it’s quite a masterful skill to be such a different book to different people, and I think Salinger does that well. But for me (in my twenties), that’s about where it ends.
…Ask me again in 10 years.
You can read my other book reviews on my blog.
