The Catcher in the Rye

Just finished reading The Catcher in the Rye, and enjoyed it quite a lot. I read it aloud to Nick, which is a great way to read this book if you don’t mind a lot of cussing, because it's all about voice—voice and attitude, because of course Holden Caulfield is an icon of teenage anxiety, cynicism and depression.

Now that I've read it, I do think it's too bad that Catcher in the Rye is so widely read in high school English classes. Not because of Holden's potty mouth or the book's depictions of adolescent sexuality and alcohol abuse (all official excuses for banning this book), but just because there are better books out there. I will say, at no point did I find this book uninteresting, and it does have moments of real poignancy, but I think kids these days might find it dated and tedious.

Here are a few bits of trivia from wikipedia:

• The word "goddamn" appears in the book 252 times.
• Salinger has refused to license the film rights to any producer or director. The reason for his refusal to allow a film version of the novel: "I would like to see it done, but Holden wouldn't approve"—a reference to Holden's distaste for movies and Hollywood "phonies."
• Mark David Chapman, who killed John Lennon, was carrying the book when he was arrested immediately after the murder and referred to it in his statement to police shortly thereafter. John Hinckley, Jr., who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, was also reported to have been obsessed with Catcher in the Rye, and Kurt Cobain is said to have been carrying a copy of the book and wearing a red hunting cap in the weeks prior to his death.
• The Catcher in the Rye continues to be both one of the most banned books in America and one of the most taught books in public schools.
• The poem’s name (and a central theme) comes from the poem “Coming Through the Rye” by Robert Burns. If anyone can restate this poem in modern American English, I'd love to know what it means.

And some memorable lines:

"I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn't have to have any goddamn stupid useless conversations with anybody."
(now why didn't I think of that?!)

"What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff— I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy."

"Sleep tight, ya morons!"

"All morons hate it when you call them a moron."

"What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it."

(Hello, is this the Austen residence? May I speak with Jane, please?)