Holden *is* whiny and irritating. He's a depressed teenager.
I love For Esme with Love and Squalor. A lot of Salinger is too overdone for me, but that one has restraint.
Everyone's getting spanked but me.
Willow ,'The Killer In Me'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
flea - Jan 28, 2010 10:31:07 am PST #10844 of 28359
information libertarian
Polter-Cow - Jan 28, 2010 10:37:23 am PST #10845 of 28359
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
I read it in high school, and I don't really remember what I thought about it. I don't think I LOVED it, but I didn't dislike it either.
megan walker - Jan 28, 2010 11:01:45 am PST #10846 of 28359
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist
I thought Holden was whiny and irritating.
Oh God, yes. I think it was standard non-required prep school reading, so, I read it, but I didn't enjoy it.
Fred Pete - Jan 28, 2010 11:02:23 am PST #10847 of 28359
Ann, that's a ferret.
When I was a sophomore in high school, our English teacher gave us a 3-page list of Books Every Educated Person Should Read. The assignment: Pick one and read it. Half a dozen picked Catcher in the Rye. (I chose Brave New World.)
I did read Catcher a couple of years later. Holden is a well-drawn portrait of a certain side of adolescence -- he's supposed to be a whiny, irritating anti-hero. So on that score, I'd call Catcher a good novel that accomplishes what it sets out to do. But it certainly isn't an enjoyable read, and I fail to see how multiple generations of teenagers adopted it as The Ultimate Novel.
Kathy A - Jan 28, 2010 11:04:19 am PST #10848 of 28359
We're very stretchy. - Connie Neil
I read Catcher in 8th grade, and I thought Holden was whiny and irritating. But I don't have much patience with whiny characters--Hardy's Tess drove me bonkers. I just want to shake her soooo hard!
Tom Scola - Jan 28, 2010 11:04:19 am PST #10849 of 28359
Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.
When I was in junior high, my teacher suggested reading the book as if Holden's narrative was his talking to a psychiatrist.
Sophia Brooks - Jan 28, 2010 11:04:27 am PST #10850 of 28359
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here
I think he is much less likely to appeal to "today's youth" whatever that is. But I did like the book, and read it on my own, not for class.
Actually, I wonder if Holden Caulfield was a proto-hipster?
ETA: I also liked Tess.
§ ita § - Jan 28, 2010 11:07:34 am PST #10851 of 28359
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I read the book on my own, but with the understanding that not only was it a must-read, but that it was a classic and that Holden had been enshrined by many.
Accurate as it may be, I never got why I should care about his story. I don't need my protagonist to be likable, but he didn't have anything to recommend him to me.
I don't remember details about Franny & Zooey, but I don't recall disliking it either.
Seska (the Watcher-in-Training) - Jan 28, 2010 11:11:34 am PST #10852 of 28359
"We're all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?"
I read Catcher for an American Lit class in uni. It was good in context. But, yeah, Holden is irritating.
Atropa - Jan 28, 2010 11:15:29 am PST #10853 of 28359
The artist formerly associated with cupcakes.
I've never read Catcher. I take it I wouldn't like it?