The Catcher in the Rye-J.D. Salinger

Novel

 

The Catcher in the Rye

J.D. Salinger

 

            What a strange name and what a strange book. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist explains in the book what he would like to be in life; a ‘Catcher in the Rye’. This is from a Robert Burns’ poem: ‘If a body meets a body coming through the Rye’. To understand the context one has to read the book.

            Holden is a sixteen year old dropout from a high-end private school. This book describes a few days in his life as he roams around New York after being expelled from the school where he failed repeatedly in all subjects except English. Holden finds the world and its ways utterly intolerable. All the people are phony, their conversation is pain in his a*** and their way of life just kills him. If there is one thing that drives him nuts it is pretence. But the problem is that Holden sees pretence in almost every person around him and in all their thoughts, their behaviour and their doings. When one thinks about these issues, the truth in Holden’s beliefs does begin to strike home. But what is true and what is phoney, what is pretentious and what is real is a very difficult issue to resolve. May be it is just the way one looks at things. Nevertheless it is an engaging way that Holden looks at the world. Salinger has presented this view in such intricate details that one suspects the book to be a chronicle of his own life, if not the actual incidents and characters than surely the beliefs of its actors.

            Book is written in a conversational language of a sixteen year old. Slangs, curse words abound. It is an effective technique to portray the anger of a sensitive teenager against a world that he considers hostile to himself. Though he is put off by almost all and sundry few people do make him genuinely happy. One is his kid sister Phoebe. His long conversation with her near the end is beautifully and poignantly done. There is much humour throughout and certain situations are rib-ticklingly hilarious.

            I kept on looking for features which made this book sell ten million copies. But like most other legendary books that I have read, I could not discover these.


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