Catcher in the Eye

BOOK REVIEW

A CATCHER IN THE RYE

“When you’re feeling very depressed, you can’t even think”. When Holden said this in J.D. Salinger’s bestseller The Catcher in The Rye, he echoed the sentiments of thousands of youngsters across the world. Holden Caulfield has been kicked out of three schools, finds almost all adults phony, can’t get passing grades in a single subject and the disappearance of ducks from the Central Park Lagoon in New York is one of life’s most intriguing mysteries to him. Yet he misses his dead brother Allie and almost adores his intelligently innocent little sister Phoebe.

The Catcher in The Rye is the sum of incidents that Holden goes through over a period of two days and admirably brings out the confusion and the conflict that possibly rage through every teenagers mind during the turbulent teens. Holden takes us to his world in New York and through him; we visit shady hotels, a bar, a museum, and Broadway. Holden has a problem with almost everything in the world and has absolutely no clue about what he wants to do in life, very similar to most of our situations. He cannot understand a thing about girls and is yet in constant pursuit of them.

A book that received appreciation and critique in equal measure is one of the two only publications of J.D.Sallinger, after its stupendous success, Sallinger withdrew from public life, became a recluse, and remained away from public glare until his death a few days ago.

What I like about this book is that, you do not need a dictionary to understand it, it is something most of us identify with, and most importantly, it is not very lengthy making it very readable for most of us. Although what I should caution you about, is that the censor board would be very happy to “cut” some portions of the book in spite of them being integral to Holden’s journey to finding himself in this insanely adult world.