100 Books in 2018

11/ the catcher in the rye by j. d. salinger (re-read)

read: 05.02.18 - 08.02.18

book: The Catcher in the Rye

author: J. D. Salinger

blurb: The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it.

review: The theme for my re-reads this month is simply 'American', and later on this month I hope to pick up 'To Kill A Mockingbird'. Both of these re-reads were books that I had always heard amazing things about, but when I came to reading them I was left feeling very little at all. The first time I read 'The Catcher in the Rye' I saw Holden as annoying, constantly complaining, and someone that I just couldn't relate to.

But having read this a second time round, I realise that the place and experience that you've had in life very much affects the way you see this book. A year on from the first time that I read this book, I found that sympathised with Holden. I knew his feelings of loneliness and confusion in a world that seemed too big.

I also enjoyed the flow of the story, something that I had also complained about the first time round. I disliked the fact that not a lot actually happened in this story the first time round, but this time I thought the focus on his emotions made this feel more real. Holden does feel like a teenager, like someone who is going through the same things as me.

It's still not going to be a favourite book of mine. It won't ever be. It's not the type of book that I could ever attach to on any intense emotional level, but I can appreciate it more now.

rating: 8/10