Catcher in the Rye is an adult book written for juveniles, and I mean that in the best possible way. It is about profound realization we all have at some point

Catcher in the Rye is an adult book written for juveniles, and I mean that in the best possible way. It is about profound realization we all have at some point that adults are not the grown-ups we think them to be, but rather - as I've heard expressed well recently - adults are merely big children that have left the sandbox. Or in Holden's words, phonies. I think this still is a profound and powerful book for anyone reading it at the appropriate point in their life, usually the last year or two of high school. If you are familiar with post-war American culture of the 1950's, then you can also appreciate on a literary and historical level its counter-cultural message. But otherwise, if you're encountering Catcher in the Rye for the first time having already become a grown-up adult, I wouldn't expect much of it.