Often touted as a coming-of-age book, I beg to differ. This book is about struggling with grief and loss. After suffering two tragedies, Holden is disoriented and searching for purchase. While Holden is desperately crying out for help, the adults in his life consistently fail him. Holden wants to preserve the innocence of children—something no one has done for him. And his kid sister Phoebe seems to provide the foundation which Holden so urgently needs. While *The Catcher in the Rye* is too ch...

A lot of people say *The Catcher in the Rye* sucks because Holden is annoying and complains all the time, but that's actually why it's so good. Nothing could be more relatable. And also, it's the story of a heartbreakingly empathetic CHILD coping with coming of age and the death of his brother while being betrayed by every authority figure and person he trusts, and his main takeaway is still loving his sister and appreciating the world around him and missing everyone he's met. What book did t...

Journal EntryToday I am 15 years old. Everything is bullshit, as usual. I can't believe how fucked everything is around me. Like I'm surrounded by zombies. I can't talk to any of my so-called friends, I can't talk to Jamie, I can't talk to my parents. Who would bother listening anyway? I cannot wait to leave Orange County! This place makes me fucking sick. Everyone is a hypocrite. Everything is so goddamn bright and shiny and sunny and meaningless. FUCK, life is so full of crap.There is one good...

5.0 stars. I LOVE it when I go into a book with low expectations and it ends up completely blowing me away. Admittedly, that's tougher to do with "classics," but it definitely happened here. I remember first reading **The Catcher in the Rye** by J.D. Salinger in school (like a lot of us) and not thinking it was anything special. But, having first read it almost 25 years ago, I knew I had to read it again before I could feel justified in actually reviewing it. Of course, I wasn’t holding out much...

I was worried as hell about reading The Catcher in the Rye again. The last time I read it was about a thousand years ago when I was just a kid. I was lousy with angst just like good old Holden back then. I really was. Now that I’m a crummy old guy I figured that I wouldn’t like it anymore. That’s the one thing about crummy old guys, they always hate books that kids like. Every time I reread a corny book that I really liked when I was a kid it makes me want to give the writer a buzz and ask what ...

I finished reading The Catcher in the Rye the other day, and I just wanted to grab Holden Caulfield by the collar, shake him really hard, and yell at him to grow up. I guess I've realized for a while now that The Catcher in the Rye – a book I loved when I was sixteen – was a favorite precisely *because* I was sixteen. At sixteen, I found Holden Caulfield's angst profoundly moving; I admired his scathing critique of society, his sharp understanding of human nature, his extreme sensitivity (I mean...

I first read *The Catcher in the Rye* in the 8th grade. My mom had to sign a permission slip because of the cursing. Before I even started, I had *so* many expectations. Back then, I was reading *Seventeen Magazine*, which actually used to run smart features about books and poetry. There was this one piece where they asked people what book changed their lives, and something like more than half said *The Catcher in the Rye*. I think there might have been some celebrity mentions in there, too. Any...

I'm holding a fiver here.
I'll give it to anyone who can explain the plot of *The Catcher in the Rye* (or the reason it doesn't have one) and make me understand why on earth people think it's so amazing. Seriously, what's the big deal with J.D. Salinger's *The Catcher in the Rye*? Looking for genuine *The Catcher in the Rye* book reviews – someone, please enlighten me!

Edit: Please stop liking and commenting on this review. It's 2024, and *The Catcher in the Rye* is still awful.Edit 2: Honestly, the unhinged reactions to this review I wrote as a high schooler say way more about the Goodreads community than they do about my IQ or literary analysis skills. If you're getting this worked up, please go touch some grass.If I could give *The Catcher in the Rye* a zero, I would. I absolutely hated it. I don't usually *hate* books; it's usually a strong dislike, and I ...

Here's my take on why this book seems to either grab you or completely miss the mark: either you see a bit of yourself in Holden Caulfield, or you just don't get him. If you *do* connect with Holden – maybe you see your past self, or, heaven forbid, your current self – then you probably see him as this misunderstood, artistic soul, battling against a phony and heartless world. You probably think J.D. Salinger is a genius because he just *gets* it, and more importantly, he gets *you*. But if yo...