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21st February 2014
10:24am GMT

What is it about?
The book revolves around the character of teenager Holden Caulfield, a lonely soul who seems slightly abandoned by his family and trying to find a connection with the world. Holden is a loner, but a loner that desperately wants to feel like he is a part of something. At the outset, he is expelled from his school and so begins an adventure in New York City which the reader is made privy to. However, all of the people he encounters annoy him in some way, the women he dances with at the hotel, the conversations with the nun and with the love interest Sally. Holden, it seems, never wants to grow old, he wants to be the Catcher in the Rye, a man who prevents people from jumping into adulthood, to remain a child with a child's view of the world forever. It is at this point that we realise Holden is actually quite distraught from an event which occurred in his earlier life.
Why read it?
The Catcher in the Rye is a modern classic, a book that is so filled with disappointment and cynicism that it is almost uplifting. A part of us would like to tell Holden that he should grow up and get on with his life while the other half would like to preserve his childhood innocence forever; the very problem many encounter with their own children as parents. As well as that, Holden is hugely isolated, an issue which is becoming more predominant in modern society. If you can't make connections with people, are you destined to a life of isolation and alienation and is that where Holden is heading? On top of that, Catcher is actually quite a short book and yet will have a long impact. You will always remember that first meeting with Holden Caulfield and from time to time you will want to revisit him in the moment of time he is preserved in. This is most certainly a classic that you should check out.Explore more on these topics: