Catcher in the Rye

Reading J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye as a 40 year old is a bit of a weird experience. I first read the classic in high school, of course, probably around the age of 15. I read it again in college, in a sociology class probably called something like Youth and Alienation. I noticed all the same stuff this time around. Yeah, Holden says goddamn a lot and everyone and everything is phony, and I laughed at some of the same things, like his summary of a movie he's seen. He hates movies and his explanation of the sappy story makes it sound so inane it's hard to believe such a movie existed. I've always wanted to find out if that was an actual movie. I love when he meets the friend of a date and says, "he was the kind of phony that have to give themselves room when they answer somebody's question. He stepped back, and stepped right on the lady's foot behind him. He probably broke every bone in her body." Holden does that, too, speaks all the time in a kind of synecdoche: Stepping on someone's foot and breaking every bone in her body.

That's what I noticed more this time:the writing. I wasn't so caught up in the story as I was as a teen and I wasn't reading it for a class for which I had to come in and say clever things along the lines of Holden not wanting to grow up and him catching little kids (in the rye) to keep them from losing their innocence. Instead, I noticed that every chapter ended abruptly or a bit oddly, which I liked, actually. Like: That's the terrible part. I swear to God I'm a madman. Or even better: He was strictly a pain in the ass, but he certainly had a good vocabulary. He had the largest vocabulary of any boy at Whooton when I was there. They gave us a test. End of chapter. We never hear about that kid again. I kind of like those endings; it added to the sense that Holden's mind is jittering al over the place.

I was more tuned-in to the coming mental break-down and I finally saw how Holden's problems are tied in with his brother's death. I'd been so blinded into thinking this was a book about an alienated teen, and youth tearing away from grown ups, that I'd always missed how affected Holden is by Ally's death from leukemia.

The other thing that struck me more forcefully this time was how late everything happens. I mean, I know he's in NYC, and that I'm old now, but still, doesn't anyone sleep? All of his adventures occur in about 48 hours and he sure packs a lot in. I also finally paid attention to the copyright date. This is such a 1950s book and yet it was published in 1946. I can see why it seemed like a scandalous view of a teenager then. The country is just coming out of a war in which young men became adults too soon (and often died). They gave everything for a larger cause. In contrast, Holden is loose and self-absorbed. His adventures and frankness of speech (and action) would have set a lot of adults all a twitter, adults still reeling from the loss of their hero sons and daughters. This is exactly why the book is considered a classic. It has dulled with age, but in context, you realize how ground-breaking this probably was at the time. Would a teen still care about this book today? Maybe. Holden's got a pretty good voice and speaks some truths but he is a bit of a whiner.

In the end, after a bit of resistance, I'm glad my book club chose this to read. It's made me think of going back to other books about which I have happy, shiny memories and see how they read, how they age along with me. Of course, that has all sorts of disaster potential and I have no interest in ruining good memories, but Catcher did make me realize I'm glad I'm not a teenager anymore. At the very least, I get more sleep.

**A note about the cover picture. This is not the copy I read, but I remember seeing this at an slightly older friend's house when I was 9 or 10 and she told me the book was scandalous because the teacher picks his nose (which is true!) Ah, innocence...