Catcher in the Rye-- Sixty-some Years Later

                                                                   

It's been a while since I re-read Catcher, and, not surprisingly, the years have made a difference. I first encountered the book when I was a seventeen-year-old freshman in college, and I was totally hooked. I still find Holden and his goofy sincerity quite endearing. His professed hatred of phonies (almost everyone/old guys who pick their noses/young guys who pick their pimples/and a myriad of other denizens of his prep school/NYC upper middleclass world always see-saws with his innate empathy for almost everyone. 

"About all I know is, I sort of miss everybody I told about. Even old Stradlater and Ackley, for instance, I even think I miss that goddam Maurice. It's funny. Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."

As I re-read, I wondered how today's young people would react to Holden. Catcher is sometimes seen as a classic and required reading (possible the kiss of death) or it's banned.

Back in the Sixties, my mother-in-law and some of her friends got their panties in a wad because Catcher was assigned reading at University of South Florida (where said book critics were advisors to a sorority.) Had they read the book? No, not really, just the few pages toward the end where the f-word appears.

Never mind that the use of the word is because Holden is trying to wipe it off a school wall before any little kids see it.

Of course, we argued this point with my MIL. Didn't matter. She was convinced that she was saving the sorority girls from having to read the word.

(My MIL also had strong views about interracial marriage because, as she told us, 'Cardinals don't marry Bluejays.' )

 Some people, it's a waste of time to argue with.

But I digress.

I still would like to know if younger people read this book and what their reactions are. It's pretty much a period piece now, if not actual historical fiction. 

(Back in 2010 I blogged about Catcher and other books that had been important to me in my late teens. That post is HERE.)