Catcher in the Rye | Paperback

I loved this book. It's an intriguing narrative into an erratic, misanthropic and ultimately pitiful mind. Disturbing at times and hilariously mad in places. I really felt for the main character 'Holden Caulfield'. My only criticism is for the ending which I felt was frustratingly abrupt and unsatisfying, purely because the rest of the story was so captivating and always felt like it was leading to an intersting end. However despite this, I still thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who is intersted in checking it out.

The Catcher in the Rye is one of those books that can change your life, but only if you let it. The Idea of this complex character struggling between an apparent social dismay and the need for close intimacy can be both interesting and melancholic.
The story follows a young man named "Holden Caufield" whose search for meaning and reassurance in a "phony" infested city takes him on an adventure of self discover, Meeting and thinking of true to life characters.
This book should not suffer in the shadow of a murder case but reside in the hands of anyone who questioned life. This book is a classic and it deserves to be bought read and talked about.
I urge you gently to endeavor and see for yourself how good this story is.
Unless your a phony.

I actually brought this because I wonderd why the assasinator of John Lennon was holding it in his hands when he killed him. I was expecting some sort of psycopathic book which maybe gave some explanation to as why he killed him. Maybe it does to an extent as he called a lot of people "phonies" and maybe he thought John Lennon was one but still not really much of a reason to kill a legend!

Apart from that I enjoyed the book its about a young guy growing up over a particular summer in New York. He gets fed up with everything probably mild depression and tries to run away.

The text is from his point of view so dont expect any highly detailed explanations about the sea and stars.

The thing about this book is I'm not sure if I get it, maybe a spoilers review section could be put up to stop me ruinging it!

As an avid reader of anything that is supposed to be a 'classic' i approached this book with a great deal of excitement, only to be left feeling hugely let down. When i finished this book, i really could not for the life of me grasp what people rave on about this book for. For me anyway, it just felt rather vague and pointless and i found the charcaters in the novel massively frustrating, i just felt like shouting out 'Get a life and do something with yourselves. I will not be recommending this book.

I studied this book in college a few years ago- to me this book is a perfect encapsulation of the teenage angst that i felt (and still feel today, even though i'm 20 years old i'm still a teenager at heart) this is the literary equivalent of Kurt Cobain & John Lydon & every other youth rebellion since then. if you're an angry young man/woman, you gotta read this

:p