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J.D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield, Aging Gracelessly
Washington Post ^ | October 19, 2004 | JONATHAN YARDLEY

Posted on 10/23/2004 6:55:30 AM PDT by jalisco555

Precisely how old I was when I first read "The Catcher in the Rye," I cannot recall. When it was published, in 1951, I was 12 years old, and thus may have been a trifle young for it. Within the next two or three years, though, I was on a forced march through a couple of schools similar to Pencey Prep, from which J.D. Salinger's 16-year-old protagonist Holden Caulfield is dismissed as the novel begins, and I was an unhappy camper; what I had heard about "The Catcher in the Rye" surely convinced me that Caulfield was a kindred spirit.

By then "The Catcher in the Rye" was already well on the way to the status it has long enjoyed as an essential document of American adolescence -- the novel that every high school English teacher reflexively puts on every summer reading list -- but I couldn't see what all the excitement was about. I shared Caulfield's contempt for "phonies" as well as his sense of being different and his loneliness, but he seemed to me just about as phony as those he criticized as well as an unregenerate whiner and egotist. It was easy enough to identify with his adolescent angst, but his puerile attitudinizing was something else altogether.

That was then. This is half a century later. "The Catcher in the Rye" is now, you'll be told just about anywhere you ask, an "American classic," right up there with the book that was published the following year, Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea." They are two of the most durable and beloved books in American literature and, by any reasonable critical standard, two of the worst. Rereading "The Catcher in the Rye" after all those years was almost literally a painful experience.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: awfulbooks; bookreview; catcherintherye; childabuse; hemmingway; salinger
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To: jalisco555
Like most high school students I had these books inflicted on me and I've yet to forgive my teachers.

My ninth grade english teacher had us read Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy.......if I ever run across her I'll slap her silly.

FMCDH(BITS)

61 posted on 10/23/2004 8:09:09 AM PDT by nothingnew (KERRY: "If at first you don't deceive, lie, lie again!")
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To: zook
"I read Franny & Zooey, liked it much more than Catcher."

I've read that as well as "Catcher" but my favorite by far is "Raise High the Roofbeam Carpenters."

It really catches the flavor of a family get together.

62 posted on 10/23/2004 8:09:34 AM PDT by Mad Dawgg (French: old Europe word meaning surrender)
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To: nothingnew

Kid stuff, I had to read Tobias Smollett. I believe forcing young people to read TS is a felony in many states.


63 posted on 10/23/2004 8:12:26 AM PDT by durasell (Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
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To: CaptainK

I agree with you. I have never understood the magic of Hemingway. I love William Faulkner and Albert Camus, and I like Scott Fitzgerald, but Hemingway just leaves me wondering what am I missing?


64 posted on 10/23/2004 8:13:53 AM PDT by Savage Beast (9/11 was never repeated--thanks to President Bush!)
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To: elli1
Darn you (LOL)! Somehow, I knew you'd call me on that statement.

The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas) has to rank right up there. Even the unabridged version is nearly impossible to put down.

For 20th Century literature, Invisible Man and Brideshead Revisited are among my favorites. I also have a weakness for Tolkien-- I re-read Lord of the Rings every 4 or 5 years.

For modern fiction, I love almost anything by Richard Russo (Empire Falls, Nobody's Fool, The Risk Pool).

All the King's Men, however, stands in a special class. I think you just talked me into taking it off my bookshelf! (I do need SOMETHING to take my mind off all these polls for the next 10 days.)

65 posted on 10/23/2004 8:18:21 AM PDT by NYS_Eric
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To: NYS_Eric

What did you think of the movie version of Nobody's Fool?


66 posted on 10/23/2004 8:19:48 AM PDT by durasell (Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
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To: durasell

I know it didn't do too well, but I enjoyed it. Bruce Willis did some real acting in that film-- loved that character. And Paul Newman turned in another great performance (WHY does he have to be a leftie?). I may be biased because of the "upstate NY" background.


67 posted on 10/23/2004 8:24:48 AM PDT by NYS_Eric
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To: NYS_Eric

Ha! My sentiments exactly Bruce Willis can actually act. Who knew? And having spent time in upstate NY, I think they nailed it, exactly. I watched it in July and still felt cold...as for Newman and his politics -- I don't ask my dentist (and he's a really good dentist) to program my computer, why would I look to actors for political advice?


68 posted on 10/23/2004 8:28:08 AM PDT by durasell (Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
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To: durasell
If you are older than the 11-14 year old window for Catcher, then don't bother

Hehehe. Oh, yeah. Waaaaay older.

69 posted on 10/23/2004 8:29:12 AM PDT by .38sw
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To: .38sw

Yeah, sorry to say, you missed the boat. I love books as much as anyone, but I still find grown up adults reading Catcher a little creepy. But that could just be me.

Try Stop Time, This Boy's Life or Duke of Deception -- all of which are excellent reads. Note: The last two should be read back to back, as they were written by brothers covering the same period of time.


70 posted on 10/23/2004 8:33:15 AM PDT by durasell (Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
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To: durasell

Are they excellent enough reads that a woman (that's me) would enjoy them? I don't read as much as I used to, can't find much time, except when I'm travelling and stuck in airports and sitting on planes. So lately I've tended to buy the sort of book that reads quickly and easily, but isn't necessarily intellectually stimulating, or takes much of my brain power. Sad, huh?


71 posted on 10/23/2004 8:38:47 AM PDT by .38sw
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To: jalisco555
I shared Caulfield's contempt for "phonies" as well as his sense of being different and his loneliness, but he seemed to me just about as phony as those he criticized as well as an unregenerate whiner and egotist. It was easy enough to identify with his adolescent angst, but his puerile attitudinizing was something else altogether.

I have always felt Salinger was well aware that Caulfield was not much, if at all, better than those he so disdained. When I read the book I actually felt that was what made it worthwhile.

That said, Old Man and the Sea is truly Hemingway's worst work, and I am a huge fan of his writing. The awards were "Lifetime Achievement Awards" because his early work had been too masculine for the literary elite. I angered my honors English teacher when she assigned it because I told her it would make much more sense to read something he had written that was actually readable.

72 posted on 10/23/2004 8:42:41 AM PDT by sharktrager (The masses will trade liberty for a more quiet life.)
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James Michener
73 posted on 10/23/2004 8:45:05 AM PDT by Jakarta ex-pat
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To: .38sw

This Boy's Life and Duke might be a little tough for a woman. They portray an extremely dsyfunctional household --in brief, when the parents divorced, one boy went with the father and one went with the mother. The father was a con man and the mother had emotional problems, and married the wrong guys, etc. etc. etc. No hilarity ensues.

On the other hand, Stop Time remains an excellent book of a very strange childhood with a happy ending. Though not short, it's also a very quick read.

All these books are nonfiction, though Stop Time may be billed as fiction.


74 posted on 10/23/2004 8:46:12 AM PDT by durasell (Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
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To: LadyDoc
I never read it, nor did I ever think about reading it. "Old Man of the Sea" was read because it was assigned by Mrs. Uteck, the ancient English teacher everyone thought should have retired after our parents had her. I can still hear her going on & on & on about "irony". She cured me of any further interest in Hemingway.

Wasn't Catcher in the Rye the book in Conspiracy theory, i.e. that was the clue you had been programed by the evil CIA or whatever?

Yes it was.

75 posted on 10/23/2004 8:47:34 AM PDT by GoLightly (If it doesn't kill ya, it makes ya stronger.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Try True at First Light. It was published just a few years ago and I truly enjoyed it. His son went through the unfinished manuscript and got it ready for publication.

The setting is much smaller than his earlier works, so it is more personal (and even more autobiographical) than his better known works. But the main character (essentially Hemingway himself) is a natural extension of his early work. More reflective of the natural progression of those protagonists much later in life. (Assuming they had either become wealthy or maintained the wealth described in the early works)

Plus, it is about big game hunting which has to piss the hell out of anyone on the left.
76 posted on 10/23/2004 8:48:54 AM PDT by sharktrager (The masses will trade liberty for a more quiet life.)
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To: GoLightly

Holly is that you?


77 posted on 10/23/2004 8:48:55 AM PDT by durasell (Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
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To: jalisco555
I would also like to add that I think Moby Dick is not only an abuse of the English language, I believe it is truly the worst book I was ever forced to read. Melville writes as if he got a good deal on adjectives and had to use them all up.
78 posted on 10/23/2004 8:55:41 AM PDT by sharktrager (The masses will trade liberty for a more quiet life.)
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To: MadIvan
I hated CITR. Bored me to tears in HS. Now Lovecraft was my favorite author for a while. Then I discovered Heinlein, Asimoov, C.S. Lewis....

L

79 posted on 10/23/2004 8:56:22 AM PDT by Lurker ( Rope, tree, Islamofascist. Adult assembly required.)
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To: sharktrager

MD is a masterpiece. Unfortunately, you have to find a free month in which to read it at a leisurely pace. This is difficult for a lot of people


80 posted on 10/23/2004 8:57:45 AM PDT by durasell (Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
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