Catcher in the Rye

[Disir]

I have a crazy question. It isn't my intention to hijack the thread. It appears that many of us do not value it in the way we are told we should. This came out in 1951, I wonder if this acceptance is not a response to the beat generation.

I don't really remember it being about The Beat Generation. Just a messed up kid journeying through adolescence. That's pretty eternal.

The book itself had nothing to do with the Beat Generation.

 

[OldLady]

I never did understand their poetry. Good thing.

 

[dblack]

I saw a documentary about J.D. (Jerome) Salinger on a cable show and they raved about "Catcher" being one of the most definitive books of the 20th century. When you add the factor that maniac killers like Hinckely and Chapman had copies of the book on them when they were captured I figured that I would pick up a copy. I'm about a 3rd of the way through and about ready to put it down. Maybe I'm too old to identify with (50's) adolescent angst but I don't get it. So far the principal character, Holden Caulfield, seems like an angry little prick who blames everyone else for his problems like flunking out of prep school.

He's falling to pieces over the death of his brother, you faggot.

Faggot? Damn, a guy carries a copy of the book when he goes out to to murder John Lennon and then another maniac claims that "Catcher" ordered him to shoot President Reagan. When I criticize the main character a self described "old lady" gets so caught up in the book that she calls me a "faggot". Now I'm afraid to finish the damn thing.

If you are mentally unstable, it's probably a good idea to put it down. The book is about a teenager having a nervous breakdown. Naturally crazy people identify with it. For the rest of us, it's a poignant tragedy about a kid growing up without love.

 

[dblack]

Around page 100 and the spoiled insufferable rich kid is hiding out in a nice hotel in NYC not far from his parent's nice home near Central Park and he managed to insult some female tourists from Seattle in the hotel bar by calling them ugly and morons while playing a cruel trick on the celebrity fixated babes by faking a sighting of Cary Grant. Does the freaking book get any better?

Depends on what you mean by "better". It's not Raiders of the Lost Ark. A central point of the book, as I read it, is that being a spoiled rich kid doesn't ensure happiness or sanity, maybe even makes it harder to attain.

 

[Disir]

I never did understand their poetry. Good thing.

Well, that's why I asked if Catcher and the Rye was heralded as this masterpiece as a reaction to the Beat Generation or rather the Beatniks that preceded it.

I loved the Beat Generation. Specifically, Keroac. I want to say there was a specific game for the poetry. I think it's in On the Road and I remember replaying it to write. I don't remember it. I was 15 at the time.

 

[whitehall]

Personally I expected a dramatic ending but it seems Holden took his little sister's money and they went on a carnival ride and he got wet in the rain and got sick and maybe well again and ...adios readers. Lucky for us the publishing industry didn't think it was important to publish anything else from Salinger other than Frannie something.

 

[Unkotare]

I saw a documentary about J.D. (Jerome) Salinger on a cable show and they raved about "Catcher" being one of the most definitive books of the 20th century. When you add the factor that maniac killers like Hinckely and Chapman had copies of the book on them when they were captured I figured that I would pick up a copy. I'm about a 3rd of the way through and about ready to put it down. Maybe I'm too old to identify with (50's) adolescent angst but I don't get it. So far the principal character, Holden Caulfield, seems like an angry little prick who blames everyone else for his problems like flunking out of prep school.

That book suuuuuuuuuucks. I’ve read that mess about 100 times, and it’s torture. I’d rather be water boarded.

 

[AsianTrumpSupporter]

I remember reading in jr. high at the suggestion of an older cousin of mine. I thought it was a good book, but Salinger is definitely overhyped.

 

[dblack]

I saw a documentary about J.D. (Jerome) Salinger on a cable show and they raved about "Catcher" being one of the most definitive books of the 20th century. When you add the factor that maniac killers like Hinckely and Chapman had copies of the book on them when they were captured I figured that I would pick up a copy. I'm about a 3rd of the way through and about ready to put it down. Maybe I'm too old to identify with (50's) adolescent angst but I don't get it. So far the principal character, Holden Caulfield, seems like an angry little prick who blames everyone else for his problems like flunking out of prep school.

That book suuuuuuuuuucks. I’ve read that mess about 100 times, and it’s torture. I’d rather be water boarded.

Huh... I've read books that sucked before. But not a 100 times. That's true dedication.

 

[Slade3200]

I saw a documentary about J.D. (Jerome) Salinger on a cable show and they raved about "Catcher" being one of the most definitive books of the 20th century. When you add the factor that maniac killers like Hinckely and Chapman had copies of the book on them when they were captured I figured that I would pick up a copy. I'm about a 3rd of the way through and about ready to put it down. Maybe I'm too old to identify with (50's) adolescent angst but I don't get it. So far the principal character, Holden Caulfield, seems like an angry little prick who blames everyone else for his problems like flunking out of prep school.

Catcher in the Rye has always been one of my favorite books, however, I read it when I was in high school so I related with Holden in a much different way than an older man or a woman would. To each their own I guess

 

[Slade3200]

Around page 100 and the spoiled insufferable rich kid is hiding out in a nice hotel in NYC not far from his parent's nice home near Central Park and he managed to insult some female tourists from Seattle in the hotel bar by calling them ugly and morons while playing a cruel trick on the celebrity fixated babes by faking a sighting of Cary Grant. Does the freaking book get any better?

If your not liking it by that point then you aren’t going to like it at all. The appeal seems to be something that doesn’t reasonate with you. Too bad, it really is a great read if you’re able to get it.

 

[OldLady]

I never did understand their poetry. Good thing.

Well, that's why I asked if Catcher and the Rye was heralded as this masterpiece as a reaction to the Beat Generation or rather the Beatniks that preceded it.

I loved the Beat Generation. Specifically, Keroac. I want to say there was a specific game for the poetry. I think it's in On the Road and I remember replaying it to write. I don't remember it. I was 15 at the time.

Who knows how anything ends up in the Canon, Disir. I usually know it when I'm in the hands of a master, though, when I'm reading a novel. Not just a James Patterson fun book, but a novel that tries to show us reality through a different prism.
Dunno. I'm an English major because I love this stuff, not because I'm smart enough to know why.

 

[OldLady]

Personally I expected a dramatic ending but it seems Holden took his little sister's money and they went on a carnival ride and he got wet in the rain and got sick and maybe well again and ...adios readers. Lucky for us the publishing industry didn't think it was important to publish anything else from Salinger other than Frannie something.

Stick with Popular Mechanics, whitehall.

 

[OldLady]

I saw a documentary about J.D. (Jerome) Salinger on a cable show and they raved about "Catcher" being one of the most definitive books of the 20th century. When you add the factor that maniac killers like Hinckely and Chapman had copies of the book on them when they were captured I figured that I would pick up a copy. I'm about a 3rd of the way through and about ready to put it down. Maybe I'm too old to identify with (50's) adolescent angst but I don't get it. So far the principal character, Holden Caulfield, seems like an angry little prick who blames everyone else for his problems like flunking out of prep school.

That book suuuuuuuuuucks. I’ve read that mess about 100 times, and it’s torture. I’d rather be water boarded.

Huh... I've read books that sucked before. But not a 100 times. That's true dedication.

He probably had to teach it.
I had to read and then write papers on 1984 four times during my education, and I hated it. Thank God I never had to teach it.

 

[Unkotare]

I saw a documentary about J.D. (Jerome) Salinger on a cable show and they raved about "Catcher" being one of the most definitive books of the 20th century. When you add the factor that maniac killers like Hinckely and Chapman had copies of the book on them when they were captured I figured that I would pick up a copy. I'm about a 3rd of the way through and about ready to put it down. Maybe I'm too old to identify with (50's) adolescent angst but I don't get it. So far the principal character, Holden Caulfield, seems like an angry little prick who blames everyone else for his problems like flunking out of prep school.

That book suuuuuuuuuucks. I’ve read that mess about 100 times, and it’s torture. I’d rather be water boarded.

Huh... I've read books that sucked before. But not a 100 times. That's true dedication.

He probably had to teach it.
I had to read and then write papers on 1984 four times during my education, and I hated it. Thank God I never had to teach it.

You don’t know how right you are!

 

[whitehall]

Personally I expected a dramatic ending but it seems Holden took his little sister's money and they went on a carnival ride and he got wet in the rain and got sick and maybe well again and ...adios readers. Lucky for us the publishing industry didn't think it was important to publish anything else from Salinger other than Frannie something.

Stick with Popular Mechanics, whitehall.

Did I miss a chance to get the hip chicks back in the 60's who never read it? Al I get is inane insults and nobody wants to discuss why the freaking book is a classic?

 

[OldLady]

Personally I expected a dramatic ending but it seems Holden took his little sister's money and they went on a carnival ride and he got wet in the rain and got sick and maybe well again and ...adios readers. Lucky for us the publishing industry didn't think it was important to publish anything else from Salinger other than Frannie something.

Stick with Popular Mechanics, whitehall.

Did I miss a chance to get the hip chicks back in the 60's who never read it? Al I get is inane insults and nobody wants to discuss why the freaking book is a classic?

I think a few of us have been trying to tell you what the novel is about and why it is so popular, such a "classic" of its time. But you are ignoring those patient attempts and still saying "nobody wants to discuss why.." which is why you are getting insulted.