Of Teen Angst and an Author’s Alienation

[elleng]

What really knocked readers out about “The Catcher in the Rye” was the wonderfully immediate voice that J. D. Salinger fashioned for Holden Caulfield — a voice that enabled him to channel an alienated 16-year-old’s thoughts and anxieties and frustrations, a voice that skeptically appraised the world and denounced its phonies and hypocrites and bores.

Mr. Salinger had such unerring radar for the feelings of teenage angst and vulnerability and anger that “Catcher,” published in 1951, remains one of the books that adolescents first fall in love with — a book that intimately articulates what it is to be young and sensitive and precociously existential, a book that first awakens them to the possibilities of literature.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/books/29appraisal.html?hp

[comtec]

1. I actually hated catcher in the rye

thought it was so much tosh!

But after dissecting it, it started to make more sense to me.

Mind you I probably would have liked it better if I had read it at 12 or 13.

I found the language distracting but that's just my personal feeling about the book.

[tiny elvis]

2. catcher is not a universally appealling book

many or most adolescents do not identify with holden's pain and confusion and anger
i think those people are fortunate and i can understand that the book is not edifying or associative with reality for them
i am hoping that salinger left some comparable document from his old age

[Demeter]

3. I Couldn't Force Myself to Read It

All that young white male whining--just didn't fit with a proto-feminist's perspective.

[tiny elvis]

5. thanks for reminding me that babes on the whole don't care for the book

its appreciation is limited to half of a half of potential readers

[Bluenorthwest]

4. Don't care much for Catcher

the writing is good of course, but Holden is a jerk, a whining, spoiled, rich East Coast kid to whom I did not relate at all. The manner of his life was absolutely not like mine, his life seemed to be made up as a fiction, dated, contrived, and frankly, Catcher was the first book that was hyped to me that I found uninteresting.

[MicaelS]

6. Never had to read the book in school, thank god

Read enough about the book and Holden Caulfield to know he's the kind of character I despise.

[caraher]

7. Glad to see I'm not the only one

I never related at all to the character despite being in many ways part of the "target demographic." When I read it in high school it wasn't painful to read, it just left me cold. I re-read it recently when one of my sons read it, and I liked it a bit more. But it still didn't do much for me.

I think The Onion's obit is all that needs to be said:

Bunch Of Phonies Mourn J.D. Salinger

CORNISH, NH—In this big dramatic production that didn't do anyone any good (and was pretty embarrassing, really, if you think about it), thousands upon thousands of phonies across the country mourned the death of author J.D. Salinger, who was 91 years old for crying out loud. "He had a real impact on the literary world and on millions of readers," said hot-shot English professor David Clarke, who is just like the rest of them, and even works at one of those crumby schools that rich people send their kids to so they don't have to look at them for four years. "There will never be another voice like his." Which is exactly the lousy kind of goddamn thing that people say, because really it could mean lots of things, or nothing at all even, and it's just a perfect example of why you should never tell anybody anything.

[comtec]

8. LOL Perfect!

I need to thank the Onion for reminding me why i HATED reading that book!

In my book report, I seem to recall calling holden himself phoney, and unable to grip life.
but i digress.