Review: The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Catcher in the Rye / 0-316-76948-7

There's not much to be said about Salinger's classic that hasn't already been said. The intense pain and longing of adolescence is tangible here - along with the impossible, conflicting desires that rage through these troubled years.

Like any other boy his age, Holden longs for immediately available sex, but he cannot reconcile this longing with his emotional need for love and intimacy. Like so many of his peers, Holden yearns for adulthood and maturity and independence yet feels the pangs of sadness that come with the loss of innocence. He knows, instinctively, that his own innocence is already lost, but wishes somehow to slow the loss of innocence for those he loves: those people in his life whom he deems to be not phony.

~ Ana Mardoll

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