Book #57: Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

I can't believe I'd never read this before. I somehow escaped from reading it in high school and I never got around to it somehow. But I was trying to hit some of the cultural must-reads this year and so I am glad to have finally read this one. I almost let my library hold on it expire and I'm so glad I just slammed through it instead of returning it unread.

Holden Caulfield, our narrator and main  character, tells us about one specific weekend of his life, when he gets kicked out of his prep school he's been attending and returns home to New York City, although instead of heading home he wanders around the city drinking and getting into things so that he doesn't have to confront his parents yet about getting kicked out of school. The events of the weekend, of the whole book, are not actually important or all that interesting, but Holden's attitude and character and observations about life and the people around him are what makes this book memorable and resonant for people who read it. Although he's only 16, Holden is seriously jaded and disgusted by all the "phonies" (one of his favorite words) he sees, and he cuts through all the crap he sees everyone around him doing--although his definition of phony is basically all encompassing (and Holden himself is definitely phony whenever he interacts with other people). He even hates movies and plays because the actors in them are just people acting phony like they're someone they're not. He gets depressed by how fake everyone acts and because of this, he refuses to try hard in school or to follow the expected life path for him. But he likes people who really seem like good people, even as he notices their occasional phoniness, like the nuns he saw in the subway, and his old history teacher at his school. He loves his little sister Phoebe, and his older brother D.B., and it seems like a lot of his problems stem back to the death of his younger brother Allie a few years ago. I liked him for his connection to his siblings and for his constant searching out for something good and real out there.

I knew a few basic things about this book before reading it, one being how many times it's been banned and taken out of schools. I can see why people would have wanted it banned, in some ways--Holden Caulfield is definitely not someone you want high school kids to be emulating in any way, with the constant language, drinking and smoking, and dropping out of school, etc. But I think teenagers (and everyone) can feel a little disillusioned (or a LOT) sometimes, and like the questionable Mr. Antolini says, it's helpful to grow up, get educated, and to learn that you are not even close to being the first person to feel like this and to be disgusted by human nature or by the way people behave or think in such self-interested ways. 

I have felt like Holden sometimes, thinking that people are the worst. Donald Trump running for president is proof of that. But I honestly think that people are better-meaning, and better, than I and Holden give them credit for. I have to.