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Author:J. D. Salinger
Title:The Catcher In The Rye
Publisher:  Penguin
Country:UK
Date:Aug 1994
Format:Paperback
Genre:Fiction
ISBN-10:014023750X
Barcode:9780140237504
Total Editions:14
First Published:  1951
Rating:9.0  Rate
Collection:  I Own It     I Want It 
Community: 1 Owns
Price Guide:Valuation Page
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Notes

192 Pages.

First Penguin Edition of the original American Text.

Primary Edition

Book

J. D. Salinger - The Catcher In The Rye - Little, Brown And Company - Hardcover - USA (1951)

Comments and Reviews
 
Magic Marmalade
16th Mar 2017
 Review
Holden Caulfield And The Template For Gloom!

...Would have been a great alternative title for this.

I'll have to read this again, as I don't really remember that much about it... except how underwhelmed by it I was.

A short novel about moody youth (he says dismissively :)... with a huge reputation.

I think it may be one of those instances where the reputation came to overwhelm the actual content and quality... and couldn't live up to billing eventually.

But having thought about it since (my reaction to it), I think it's probably the case that I just read it too late - I was too old for it to mark me the way it has many young comers of agers for generations now. The reason being, I conclude, is that this did originally make such a splash when it came out, that it created a template for an anti-hero type, that we've seen in books and in cinema ever since, and that have, during the course of time, been refined, probably done better, and certainly too often.


..."Is that it?!!!"

I finished it, and then took the book by the spine and shook it, to see if there were any extra words in there that I was missing somewhere... maybe they'd fall out and reveal all this brilliance I'd been hearing of. I even went round the back of the book, to see if the words were hiding there... but alas, no.

But then... I am old.

So a modern reader looks at this as derivative, whiney teen-angst stuff... when in fact, it's the original whiney teen-angst.

But for a younger reader, at the right age, and who still has a soul, this may come to mean a lot.

...maybe, as another aspect of it's reputation suggests (perhaps urban myth), for some it might come to mean too much (Reputedly one of the most commonly found books on the shelves of serial killers and other high profile murderers)

So maybe it's like landing a space shuttle... where you have to get it in, in just a narrow "window" of time... hit too soon, and you'll burn up... hit too late, and you'll just bounce off it's atmosphere and off into space.

(Is this a comment, or a review? - it began as a comment :)

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See Also

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J. D. Salinger - Franny And Zooey - Penguin Books - Paperback - UK - 0140237526 (1994)
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