Another Book Review? Book Review: Catcher in the Rye

“I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It's nice.” 

 

I was in IB in high school, and I was homeschooled in junior high.  So, a lot of the books that people read for English in high school and junior high-- let's just say that I read different things, okay?  Not many people  have read Labyrinths by Borges, though.

Anyways, because of that, I have a gradual goal to read all the books other people read that I never got to.  And yesterday, I didn't feel like a million bucks, so I kind of sat on the coach most of the day.  And I kind of read all of Catcher in the Rye. 





So, maybe it's because I don't have to read them for school, but a lot of the books people read in high school and hated, I end up really liking.  Catcher in the Rye isn't an exception.  I genuinely liked it.

Holden Caulfield has been to multiple prep schools, and doesn't stay at any very long.  Mostly because he usually flunks out.  Not because he's stupid or anything, just because he doesn't care.  He has no ambitions, no direction.  He doesn't hate anyone or anything, but he doesn't like anyone or anything either.  And so, after being kicked out of yet another school, he decides that there's no point in staying until Christmas if he's getting kicked out anyways, so he runs away.  What ensues is a few nights in NYC of no ambitions or directions.  Because the only thing he wants to be is a catcher in the rye--someone who is lost themselves, but saves everyone else.

There are a lot of things about Holden, but the center of his soul is that he is kind.  He genuinely cares about people, and people who don't, bother him on a very base level.  He deeply respects people who are genuinely nice, and don't listen to the rules of "grand" and "swell."  And he knows people, and who they are, and he loves people for who they are.  He cares about things like someone putting all the kinged checkers in the back row, just because they look nice (if you don't get the reference, read it).

You have to learn to just ignore the dangs and goshes and hecks.  That's probably why it's on a boat-load of banned lists. But the kid with no direction may just give you direction.

Four stars for this hated high-school classic.

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