Many good posts on this thread so far. I ‘m posting to you because of your well-written second and third paragraphs in this post.
I read Catcher before it was a very big-deal but preferred Salinger’s other stories (F&Z, RHTRC&SAI). Many a college thesis was written about some aspect of Salinger’s books in the ‘60s, for sure. Never wanted to track him down and have a conversation with him, as a girlfriend tried to do.
Fifteen years later, I began to realize how profoundly my thinking and reasoning had been negatively altered by his efforts. Salinger’s works may have been worth studying, but not from a liberal college professor’s POV.
Lord knows how I ever came to think as a conservative again.
Salinger’s work is essentially conservative. It’s about individuals trying to recover from some past trauma and regain some dignity in their lives.