So what all did you read of his work? Care to share an opinion?
I suffered through Bananafish in college (round two) and it didn’t do much for me. I know for sure 2 of my 3 children read Catcher in the Rye at Brookfield East. They both liked it. They both got it. They both – thank goodness! – moved on.
When the youngest toured NYU last spring the host made a point of relaying the admissions committee did not want to read about how Catcher in the Rye changed your life. Really. I found it amusing at least one of her contemporaries wrote that essay anyway.
Redefining defiance, I suppose.
Maybe I was never the normal teenager, but I can’t say I ever moved into the the crowd who sat around discussing their teenage angst. To me, even admitting to the idea that you didn’t fit in caused you, in fact, to fit in. Besides, everything ever written or said about the subject was summed up nicely in this three minute song by The English Beat. Why read a whole book?
That’s it. No deep thoughts on Salinger, but rather a curiosity about what makes us tick. It seems misery, and a reverence for misery, are part of the recipe.
Just ask JD.
2 responses so far ↓
1 The Lorax // Jan 28, 2010 at 1:55 pm
I thought the Catcher in the Rye was a bad book–not a big fan of his work. That’s not to say I don’t have any teenage angst (still).
2 Pat // Jan 28, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Not a JD fan, either. I read Catcher in the Rye in high school and thought it was monotonous. I read it again for a college class and still felt the same. Angst is what one makes of it whether it’s teens or adults, in my humble opinion. Keep focusing on it and things keep showing up to support it. As my mother would say to me sometimes when I was a teenager, “Get over it, and move forward.”
Leave a Comment