The Catcher in the Rye // J.D. Salinger
I can tell you exactly what I love about Oscar Wilde’s stylistic The Picture of Dorian Gray. I can tell you exactly what draws me into Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood. I can tell you exactly what it is I hate about Orwell’s 1984. But what I can’t do, is tell you what captivates me in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye.
On the face of it, The Catcher in the Rye should be a dull and lacklustre novel: some boy gets kicked out of school; he wanders around New York; reminisces on life; has a bit too much to drink and then calls for a prostitute before claiming he just “wants to talk”. Yawn. Yet it is so much more than simply a lifeless piece of prose that lacks lust or life. What Salinger demonstrates is how plot can in fact have very little influence over the enjoyment of a novel; in many cases, it is perhaps the narration, rather than the substance of the story, that draws us in.
Salinger’s carefully crafted narration perfectly captures the psych of a troubled teenage boy who is still recovering from the death of his younger brother and can’t help but see the adult world around him as “phony.” His inability to fit the “norm” of society leaves him feeling an outsider to the world, embodying themes of seclusion, confusion and the inability to overcome past hardships. Sound relatable?
A book about isolation and the inability to cope with the ever-moving world around us, The Catcher in the Rye has an unexplainable quality that, once read, leaves your world that little bit more grey. The cracks in society – the “phoniness” – are that little bit more apparent, and once those cracks appear, no amount of glue is ever going to fix them. Holden’s only heart-wrenching desire to be “the catcher in the rye” and save “thousands of little kids” from falling off the edge of a cliff means that readers that can’t help but be drawn into a narrator whose only desire is to save others from falling into the corruption that he, himself, has been subjected to.
A subtle yet bold masterpiece, delicate yet heavy, The Catcher in the Rye is a book that will look to reshape your moral outlook by making you aware of the blank spaces that inhabit your otherwise bland and phony life.
Words by Juliette Rowsell
[Complied by Juliette Rowsell]