The Catcher in the Rye

by J. D. Salinger

Holden Caulfield is a seventeen-year-old dropout who has just been kicked out of his fourth school, in 1950s New York. Precocious, sensitive and confused, he blunders through a haze of teenage failures, disappointments and anti-climaxes and delivers to the reader a bitter-sweet, biting commentary on all the 'phony' aspects of society and the 'phonies' themselves. Through his direct first-person narrative emerges one of the most touching, funny and nuanced portrayals of the confusions and frustrations of youth that exists in the literature of the English language, and a sparky and colloquial style that influenced generations of writers afterwards.

Innovative and revolutionary for its time, The Catcher in the Rye is as much a testament to and reflection of that time and its frustrations as it is a timeless and universal reflection on life, disillusionment, and growing up.

• ISBN10: 014023750X
• ISBN13: 9780140237504
• Publish Date: 4 August 1994 (first published 16 July 1951)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 7 May 2013
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 208
• Language: English

Reviews

[cherryblossommj]

annotated...

[angelarenea9]

This is, without a doubt, the most pointless book ever. It doesn't even have enough of a point for me to dislike it. It real just is pointless. A huge waste of time. The main character is flat, and irritating. There is really no plot. Which makes for a bad book. I do not know how this book remained popular because it doesn't deserve it. Maybe the world should reevaluate what makes a classic book. Because this should never fall under that.

[remo]

Relato largo con las musitaciones internas de un adolescente medio malote y con angustia moral típica de su edad. Hay gente que dice que no resiste una relectura adulta, pero a mí me encantó a los 19 años (técnicamente adolescencia, y tal). Me sentía retratado en algunas cosas, las suficientes como para pensar que el libro era para mí. Lo devoré y le guardo muy buen recuerdo.