The Skinny
(aka Back of the Book Summary in a Sentence)
Sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield, overwhelmed with life and desperate to find himself, goes underground in New York, which is apparently the place to be for a successful coming-of-age.
Nutritional Value
(aka What’s Good)
The narrator is a teenager who actually sounds like a teenager. Hallelujah.
Holden cusses like a teenager, complains about life like a teenager, tells messy anecdotes like a teenager, and judges people like a teenager. It’s beautiful.
Salinger was an adult when he wrote this novel, but he managed to channel the confusion and uncertainty of youth so authentically. It is such a relief to read this when a lot of the teenage protagonists in books today sound like adults who no longer remember their own teenage years.
Freezer Burn
(aka What’s Bad)
J.D. Salinger didn’t want this book to turn into a film. I know there’s the Rebel in the Rye movie, but that’s a biographical drama about the author, and not a film adaptation of the book. I would be pretty interested in seeing this on the big screen, but it will probably never come to be.
Lingering Aftertaste
(aka My Prediction)
The first chapter makes it sound like Holden got admitted into some sort of mental health facility in California after being kicked out of a fancy prep school in Pennsylvania. The back of the book says he ends up underground in New York. Wow, the dude sure can travel.
I predict that after regaining his emotional balance, he’ll be enrolled in another fancy prep school and attempt to not be kicked out this time. Nothing turns a life around like a nice long break and good mental health professionals.
Taste Test Verdict
(aka Would I Read More?)
Right after I finish typing this review, I’m going to read the rest of the book. I can probably finish it by tomorrow. I’m excited. Nothing says a wild Friday night like reading a novel and watching Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
Memorable Morsel
(aka Quotable Quote)
Did J.D. Salinger time travel to 2017? Or has it always been like this? Sound off in the comments below!
Quite a few guys came from these very wealthy families, but it was full of crooks anyway. The more expensive a school is, the more crooks it has–I’m not kidding.
Get The Catcher in the Rye
Gwen thinks that it’s as close to magic as humans can get when a blank Word document is filled with groups of letters, and those groups of letters turn into lines, and those lines turn into a whole new world.
When Gwen isn’t reading or writing, she’s drinking boba milk tea and singing along to Steven Universe. You should sing along with her.