The Catcher in the Rye

Salinger, J. D.

ISBN 10: 0808514032 ISBN 13: 9780808514039

Publisher: Turtleback Books, 1999

Synopsis

In an effort to escape the hypocrisies of life at his boarding school, sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield seeks refuge in New York City

About this title

Review

Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent." Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins,

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them."

His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.

About the Author

Salinger attended a military academy in Pennsylvania and three colleges.

Edition details

• Publisher: Turtleback Books
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0808514032
• ISBN 13: 9780808514039
• Binding: School & Library Binding
• Number of pages: 214