The Catcher in the Rye
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Couldn't stand this book at all when I was in middle school. Now 18 and wondering if I should try rereading?
Sophia
May 29, 2024 09:42PM
I first read this book in middle school for a project and I just could not STAND reading it. I don't even remember why I hated it so much, (I don't remember almost anything about it actually) but I thought the main character was annoying and a loser. I'm a lot older now and went through being annoying and (still am) a loser and I've been wondering if it's worth rereading to see if I'll get it now.
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I had a similar reaction when I read this book in 1964 when I was in high school. Holden Caulfield was a perfect example of all the arrogant jerks I had to deal with. It wasn't that unlike him, I respected my elders. I didn't know it at the time but I was already on a trajectory toward what later became the counterculture. The problem was that he was all about himself.
Years later I tried reading Salinger's Nine Stories. As short as the book was, I couldn't get through it. The characters were all fatuous disasters in a way that was completely uninteresting to me.
That's not to say that I would react the same way if I re-read Salinger now.
Years later I tried reading Salinger's Nine Stories. As short as the book was, I couldn't get through it. The characters were all fatuous disasters in a way that was completely uninteresting to me.
That's not to say that I would react the same way if I re-read Salinger now.
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