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Catcher in the Rye is the purest and starkest expression of someone's struggle against the environment in which he was brought up. If you didn't have such a str
by lmkg 17y ago
Catcher in the Rye is the purest and starkest expression of someone's struggle against the environment in which he was brought up. If you didn't have such a struggle (or had it in a very different form), then you're fortunate and your life will probably be better for it, but there will be very little in Catcher for you to relate to. I'll admit that the plot of the book is rather boring, it's just a guy doing some stuff cuz he feels like it. It requires a lot of subtext for it to be meaningful or valuable, which some people lack simply due to different experiences and background. While a lot of people find it a deeply moving or inspiring book, it's definitely a YMMV sort of thing.
- thaumaturgy 17y agoI first read Catcher in the Rye in high school, years after I had already gone through my own "Caulfield" period -- so I found it at the time kind of, I dunno, juvenile. I don't know if re-reading it now would make a difference.
- bmelton 17y agoHonestly, it would probably seem even more juvenile. I just re-read it a few months ago, and almost came away from it wondering what I'd ever seen in such a book. Of course, this is decades removed from my 'damn the man' phase in life, but I found it wholly unrelatable, and even annoying in large parts of it.