[Books] The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger

Goodreads

Started on: June 4 2013

Finished on: June 8 2013

Synopsis
The hero-narrator of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it. There are many voices in this novel: children's voices, adult voices, underground voices-but Holden's voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.

Review

The Catcher in the Rye is listed as one of the book that one must read before they die, so I decided to give it a go.

Holden Caulfield is around 16 or 17 years old. He leave school and sets out to New York for a few days before he goes home. He's on his own, he's loaded, and he has a craving for something new; at least that what I think of it. 

Holden is very adventurous, and seems like he's just winging everything, and is impulsively doing whatever it is he wants. He goes around New York, calling up people to go out with him in the middle of the night. I'm surprised they actually accept his invitations. It seemed like he hasn't slept in days. I'm also pretty surprised that he has the guts to do all that he did what he was roaming NY. 

I don't really know that exactly the plot of the story is. All I can say is that it's a weird book. A kid who goes around New York, who spends all his cash, and then what? I think I know what teachers ask their students to do a report on this book. It actually makes you think. 

The book is weird, good, and it's a classic. It being weird and slightly pointless makes it on the list of books one must read before they die. 

The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D Salinger. A must read, just for the hell of it.