I think whether we like a book or not is a highly personal decision, but if a book has sold more than 65 million copies, that tells us something about the popularity of that book.
When I first read “Catcher,” I, too, was a little baffled by the “messed-up” mental state of the hero Caulfield. But as time went by, I started to understand a little bit why so many teenagers found the book fascinating. There seems to be a time in our adolescent time that we feel we don’t fit into this society, or we feel the whole adult world is against us. We want to vent our anger, yet we don’t have a specific target. Salinger caught that exact feeling and transformed it into an amazing book about a journey through the hellish New York City nights. Confused and furious though Caulfield is, he has enough tenderness for innocent kids like his baby sister and those playing in the rye field.
Caulfield is not a likable hero; actually, he is an antihero, and such characters appeared frequently in the later books by the “beat generation” authors. If you don’t like “Catcher,” you probably wouldn’t like “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” or “The Naked Lunch” either. Again, I regard it as a personal choice. However, these books have become some sort of modern classics.
As for the author himself, I really don’t know too much. His idiosyncrasies can be found in his daughter’s book and his ex-lover’s memoir. As for me, I highly respect the privacy of this reclusive man.
When I first read “Catcher,” I, too, was a little baffled by the “messed-up” mental state of the hero Caulfield. But as time went by, I started to understand a little bit why so many teenagers found the book fascinating. There seems to be a time in our adolescent time that we feel we don’t fit into this society, or we feel the whole adult world is against us. We want to vent our anger, yet we don’t have a specific target. Salinger caught that exact feeling and transformed it into an amazing book about a journey through the hellish New York City nights. Confused and furious though Caulfield is, he has enough tenderness for innocent kids like his baby sister and those playing in the rye field.
Caulfield is not a likable hero; actually, he is an antihero, and such characters appeared frequently in the later books by the “beat generation” authors. If you don’t like “Catcher,” you probably wouldn’t like “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” or “The Naked Lunch” either. Again, I regard it as a personal choice. However, these books have become some sort of modern classics.
As for the author himself, I really don’t know too much. His idiosyncrasies can be found in his daughter’s book and his ex-lover’s memoir. As for me, I highly respect the privacy of this reclusive man.
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