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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
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The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye

byJ. D. Salinger
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Top positive review

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Mario Marquez
5.0 out of 5 starsReading is fundamental
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2020
I’m sure glad I got this book. I made it a point to start reading the top 100 bucks in history. I have already read a whole bunch without even knowing it I thought they were just called books turns out they’re on the list I have two more books coming.
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267 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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Frank N.
2.0 out of 5 starsI was worried as hell about reading this book again.
Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2017
I read the end of The Catcher in the Rye the other day and found myself wanting to take Holden Caulfield by the collar and shake him really, really hard and shout at him to grow up. I suppose I've understood for some time now that The Catcher in the Rye -- a favorite of mine when I was sixteen -- was a favorite precisely because I was sixteen. At sixteen, I found Holden Caulfield's crisis profoundly moving; I admired his searing indictment of society, his acute understanding of human nature, his extraordinary sensitivity (I mean, come on, he had a nervous breakdown for God's sake, he had to be sensitive). At sixteen, I wanted to marry Holden Caulfield. At forty, I want to spank him. After all, Holden's indictment of society boils down to the "insight" that everybody is a phony. That's the kind of insight a sixteen year old considers deep. A forty year old of the grown-up variety recognizes Holden's insight as superficial and banal, indulging in the cheapest kind of adolescent posturing. It suggests a grasp of society and of human nature that's about as complex as an episode of Dawson's Creek. Holden and his adolescent peers typically behave as though the fate they have suffered (disillusionment and the end of innocence) is unique in human history. He can't see beyond the spectacle of his own disillusionment (and neither can J. D. Salinger); for all his painful self-consciousness, Holden Caulfield is not really self-aware. He can't see that he himself is a phony.

Compare Salinger's novel of arrested development, for instance, with a real bildungsroman, Great Expectations. Holden Caulfield is an adolescent reflecting on childhood and adolescence; Pip Pirrip is an adult reflecting on childhood and adolescence. Holden Caulfield has the tunnel vision of teendom, and he depicts events with an immediacy and absorption in the experience that blocks out the broader context, the larger view. Pip Pirrip has the wonderful double vision of a sensitive adult recollecting the sensitive child he used to be; he conveys at the same time the child's compelling perspective and the adult's thoughtful revision of events. While Holden Caulfield litters his narrative with indignant exposes of phonies and frauds, Pip Pirrip skillfully concentrates on "the spurious coin of his own make" -- that is, without letting the child Pip and the adolescent Pip in on the joke, he exposes himself as a phony. Pip Pirrip grows up. Holden Caulfield has a nervous breakdown.

I suppose the only reason I begrudge him his breakdown is that so many in our culture -- many more, unfortunately, than just the legitimate adolescents among us -- seem fixated on Holden as a symbol of honesty and socially-liberating rebellion. We view nervous collapse and dysfunction as a badge of honor, a sign -- to put it in Caulfieldian terms -- that we are discerning enough to see through all the crap. Our celebration of overwrought disaffection reminds me of the last sentence of Joyce’s Araby: “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” Here is the adolescent pose non-pareil. Equally self-accusing and self-aggrandizing, it captures the adolescent at the precise moment when his own disillusionment becomes the object of his grandiose and self-dramatizing vision. That’s the kind of crap that Holden Caulfield (and J. D. Salinger) cannot see through. And it is often the kind of crap that we “adults” like to slosh around in.

The Barney beating of several years ago is another symptom of our arrested adolescence, our inability to ride the wave of disillusion into the relatively calm harbor of adulthood -- as though flailing around in the storm and raging at the wind were in themselves marks of distinction and a superior sensibility. I remember a news story about a woman in a Barney costume being seriously injured when a rabid (and probably drunken) anti-Barney fanatic attacked the big purple dinosaur at some public event. Now, I don’t know the age of the Barney-beater, but the act itself is a supremely adolescent one, in which the impulsive response to disillusionment is to lash out at those symbols of childhood which made the biggest dupes of us. At the dawn of adolescence, when Barney begins to appear cloying and false, it seems natural to want to beat up on him, as though it was Barney himself who pulled one over on us instead of our own poignant and necessary misapprehension of the nature of things. I could see Holden Caulfield beating up on Barney (at least rhetorically), and I could see Holden Caulfield missing Barney (as he misses all the “phonies” at the end of the book), but I cannot see Holden Caulfield accepting the postlapsarian Barney on new terms, as a figure who is meant for children and not for him. For all his touching poses about wanting to be the “catcher in the rye,” what Holden really wants is not to save children but to be a child again.
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From the United States

Mario Marquez
5.0 out of 5 stars Reading is fundamental
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2020
Verified Purchase
I’m sure glad I got this book. I made it a point to start reading the top 100 bucks in history. I have already read a whole bunch without even knowing it I thought they were just called books turns out they’re on the list I have two more books coming.
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Mario Marquez
5.0 out of 5 stars Reading is fundamental
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2020
I’m sure glad I got this book. I made it a point to start reading the top 100 bucks in history. I have already read a whole bunch without even knowing it I thought they were just called books turns out they’re on the list I have two more books coming.
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267 people found this helpful
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Michelle C.
5.0 out of 5 stars Is it bad that I find Holden to be so relatable?
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2017
Verified Purchase
I first read this my senior year of high school in 1994, and I had my 18 year old daughter read it recently. I identified strongly with Holden back then, and I still find him to be a highly relatable character. My daughter felt the same way. It’s semi-embarrassing, seeing our innermost thoughts and feelings on paper, in black and white, for the whole world to read.

It seems most people who’ve read this book dislike Holden. Some actually feel serious contempt and loathing toward him. Those people are as equally suprised and confused by our feelings, as we are by theirs.

So...what does that say about me and my daughter? Probably best we don’t think about it too much.
197 people found this helpful
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Frank N.
2.0 out of 5 stars I was worried as hell about reading this book again.
Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2017
Verified Purchase
I read the end of The Catcher in the Rye the other day and found myself wanting to take Holden Caulfield by the collar and shake him really, really hard and shout at him to grow up. I suppose I've understood for some time now that The Catcher in the Rye -- a favorite of mine when I was sixteen -- was a favorite precisely because I was sixteen. At sixteen, I found Holden Caulfield's crisis profoundly moving; I admired his searing indictment of society, his acute understanding of human nature, his extraordinary sensitivity (I mean, come on, he had a nervous breakdown for God's sake, he had to be sensitive). At sixteen, I wanted to marry Holden Caulfield. At forty, I want to spank him. After all, Holden's indictment of society boils down to the "insight" that everybody is a phony. That's the kind of insight a sixteen year old considers deep. A forty year old of the grown-up variety recognizes Holden's insight as superficial and banal, indulging in the cheapest kind of adolescent posturing. It suggests a grasp of society and of human nature that's about as complex as an episode of Dawson's Creek. Holden and his adolescent peers typically behave as though the fate they have suffered (disillusionment and the end of innocence) is unique in human history. He can't see beyond the spectacle of his own disillusionment (and neither can J. D. Salinger); for all his painful self-consciousness, Holden Caulfield is not really self-aware. He can't see that he himself is a phony.

Compare Salinger's novel of arrested development, for instance, with a real bildungsroman, Great Expectations. Holden Caulfield is an adolescent reflecting on childhood and adolescence; Pip Pirrip is an adult reflecting on childhood and adolescence. Holden Caulfield has the tunnel vision of teendom, and he depicts events with an immediacy and absorption in the experience that blocks out the broader context, the larger view. Pip Pirrip has the wonderful double vision of a sensitive adult recollecting the sensitive child he used to be; he conveys at the same time the child's compelling perspective and the adult's thoughtful revision of events. While Holden Caulfield litters his narrative with indignant exposes of phonies and frauds, Pip Pirrip skillfully concentrates on "the spurious coin of his own make" -- that is, without letting the child Pip and the adolescent Pip in on the joke, he exposes himself as a phony. Pip Pirrip grows up. Holden Caulfield has a nervous breakdown.

I suppose the only reason I begrudge him his breakdown is that so many in our culture -- many more, unfortunately, than just the legitimate adolescents among us -- seem fixated on Holden as a symbol of honesty and socially-liberating rebellion. We view nervous collapse and dysfunction as a badge of honor, a sign -- to put it in Caulfieldian terms -- that we are discerning enough to see through all the crap. Our celebration of overwrought disaffection reminds me of the last sentence of Joyce’s Araby: “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” Here is the adolescent pose non-pareil. Equally self-accusing and self-aggrandizing, it captures the adolescent at the precise moment when his own disillusionment becomes the object of his grandiose and self-dramatizing vision. That’s the kind of crap that Holden Caulfield (and J. D. Salinger) cannot see through. And it is often the kind of crap that we “adults” like to slosh around in.

The Barney beating of several years ago is another symptom of our arrested adolescence, our inability to ride the wave of disillusion into the relatively calm harbor of adulthood -- as though flailing around in the storm and raging at the wind were in themselves marks of distinction and a superior sensibility. I remember a news story about a woman in a Barney costume being seriously injured when a rabid (and probably drunken) anti-Barney fanatic attacked the big purple dinosaur at some public event. Now, I don’t know the age of the Barney-beater, but the act itself is a supremely adolescent one, in which the impulsive response to disillusionment is to lash out at those symbols of childhood which made the biggest dupes of us. At the dawn of adolescence, when Barney begins to appear cloying and false, it seems natural to want to beat up on him, as though it was Barney himself who pulled one over on us instead of our own poignant and necessary misapprehension of the nature of things. I could see Holden Caulfield beating up on Barney (at least rhetorically), and I could see Holden Caulfield missing Barney (as he misses all the “phonies” at the end of the book), but I cannot see Holden Caulfield accepting the postlapsarian Barney on new terms, as a figure who is meant for children and not for him. For all his touching poses about wanting to be the “catcher in the rye,” what Holden really wants is not to save children but to be a child again.
407 people found this helpful
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DFNYC
1.0 out of 5 stars Why is this good?
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2018
Verified Purchase
This is supposedly a classic. The boy in this book just seems like a maladjusted, not particularly bright or likable kid. I gave up about 2/3 of the way through. I was hoping it'd get better, but I skipped to the last page. It didn't. I'm not sure why this is a classic, but I now understand why the author went underground after having written it.
162 people found this helpful
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lauren
1.0 out of 5 stars but OMG I hate it! I'm the type who can't not finish ...
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2018
Verified Purchase
I know it's a classic and all, but OMG I hate it! I'm the type who can't not finish a book or movie, no matter how awful it is. I just have to finish it. But this book... it took me a good 2 years to get through it, simply because I couldn't stand it. I would read a chapter and then set it aside for months at a time. Finally, when we had some bad weather and I had nothing else to do, I sat and read the last third or so in one day, just to get it over with. And oh what sweet relief when I did finish it! And then it got put in the box of stuff to donate.
145 people found this helpful
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Alain Moreau
5.0 out of 5 stars A Sorrow Beyond Dreams
Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2017
Verified Purchase
Classic American literature. Some do hate this book, but I loved it as a teen. I remember crying at the end of the book, wishing that I could spend more time with the main character. In rereading it as an adult, it still haunts me. This is the perfect example of voice in writing. This is a beautifully wrought story that feels like the author just sat down and wrote it straight through. It is a pity that Salinger did not write another full novel. His stories are, however, like an extension in some ways. If you fall down the Salinger rabbit hole, you will know what I mean.
106 people found this helpful
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Alene N. Morrison
5.0 out of 5 stars I was 15 and absolutely hated it. I thought Holden was such a loser
Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2018
Verified Purchase
I've read this book three times. The first time, I was 15 and absolutely hated it. I thought Holden was such a loser. At 33, I read it again, and still thought it was highly overrated. This past summer, 20 years later, I read it again. FINALLY, it totally clicked and I loved the book! I can tell you why I hated the book at both 15 and 33. The reason I hated it was the entire novel is written from the perspective of a teenager, Holden, which is immature, snotty, negative, whiney, and just annoying as hell. The voice that narrates the novel resonates immaturity and the simplicity of his whining is godawful but quite necessary for the impact of the plot. It's also told from the first person point of view, which is not my preference. The language, though, sounds exactly like a teenager who has lost his way complete with insightfulness, honesty, and confusion as he tries to make it through high school. Holden is not really a likable character, but his message needs to be heard. After reading it, I decided it would be required reading in my AP class.
19 people found this helpful
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Trinket
5.0 out of 5 stars My Favorite Book!
Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2022
Verified Purchase
I fell in love with this book when I first read it in high school. It reminded me of the boys that I met at Colorado Academy in Denver and I connected to the story and Holden right away. I never had the opportunity to teach this novel, I wish that I had, but I did have the opportunity to substitute teach a class that was reading it. I was able to help them to understand what it was like for Holden through some of my stories about the boys at CA. I also introduced this novel to my eldest son when he was in the 8th grade when he was struggling to find a book to read. I told him,”You will love this book, the language is horrible!” I was right, he loved the book! He loved it so much that when he went to Kiel Germany in the 11th grade as a foreign exchange student his English teacher told him to pick out a novel to read as a class, he picked out “Catcher in the Rye”. The class in Germany loved it too!
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Peter Novitch
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!
Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2021
Verified Purchase
Bought this to get a lesson in character dialog. It was a master class! J. D. Salinger's masterful creation of the true inner monologue of a late 1940's privileged NYC teen was absolutely brilliant. You take away the vernacular of the times and you still get a timeless depiction the immature inner conflicted teen. The character of Holden Caufield is so organic, it will make you laugh at times, because parts of him are sheer reflections of your own youth. The thoughts of a child on the brink of adulthood put into print. This book is worth every penny.
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Wilsonman1
1.0 out of 5 stars / felt like the ramblings of a teenage boy with little story
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2018
Verified Purchase
Not a fan of this book :/ felt like the ramblings of a teenage boy with little story
86 people found this helpful
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