by J. D. Salinger
ages: 16+
First sentence: “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”
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I’ve gotten the impression that you can’t be on the fence about this book, that you either love it or hate it.
Well… I’m mostly ambivalent.
I didn’t hate the book. Sure Holden was annoying — so gratingly annoying — but I mostly felt pity for him. He was so pretentious and judgemental, and yet I could see that underneath all of that he was confused, lost and hopelessly depressed. The poor kid needs a good shrink and some meds. But barring that, he was mostly just a punk teenager trying to be more grown up than he actually was. Nothing to hate, nothing to despise, much to pity.
The book itself was all right. I’m not a huge fan of stream-of-consciousness books; I like things to clip along without spending much time in a character’s head. But, this book wouldn’t have worked any other way. Or, if it was told in another fashion, I don’t think it would have had the same impact. The reader could be more dispassionate about Holden and his troubles (for all my ambivalence, I wasn’t dispassionate; I did have emotional reactions to it all), and more dismissive. This way, with Holden being the narrator — though I have to admit that I wondered whether or not he was reliable; he did admit to being a liar, after all. Did any of this *actually* happen, or was it all in his head? — the reader was forced to confront Holden and his missteps, insecurities and judgements, and react to them, for good or ill. It’s a challenging book in that it throws life — a depressed, miserable life — in the readers’ faces, without flinching, without embarrassment, and makes the reader deal with it. Which is something that I can respect.
One other thing: I think I understand better what John Green was getting at in Looking for Alaska. If only for that, I am glad I read this one.
The Book Nut 
I'm about 2/3rds of the way through and I can see why I forgot this book the first time I read it. It's not very memorable. I'm not for/against it, I just don't care about Holden at all.
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Melissa! I felt the same way as you did reading this book for the first time last year. Holden was so annoying I wanted to punch him. Haha. I wouldn't of course, as I'd probably break a nail or something. But he was that EGADS frustrating!
I walked away from the novel completely “eh”
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I'm about 1/3 of the way through and totally agree. He's an obnoxious twit. And interestingly, I was thinking of Looking for Alaska, too, while I read it.
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Hi – what a great review.I totally agree that he is almost unbearably annoying but I thought that that was part of the reason the writing was so good. Thanks for sharing… Hannah
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Interesting perspective. While I agree that he is absolutely annoying, I guess I kind of remember being horribly annoying, and know-it-all, and smart-assy and all that when I was that age… and I fully expect it from my own kids in a few years… 🙂
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I don't know how you can sit on the fence with this one! I can see why you'd love it, but I found him so annoying and dull. I wasn't a fan at all!
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The first lines of our reviews are almost the exact same. That's funny 🙂
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I'm ambivalent too! The book is so well written, but Holden just drives me crazy. Which is weird because he's the first-person narrator. But there ya go.
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