Friday, October 19, 2012

Book Review: The Catcher in the Rye

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The Catcher in the Rye

Rating: A-

            Like movies, there are a number of books that I feel like I should have read by this point. For some reason, I wasn’t ever assigned to read them in school and never decided to pick them up. I just finished Catcher in the Rye. I enjoyed the pacing of the book, as the tempo seemed to speed up as the main character’s desperation increased. His drinking and professed hatred for people also increased as the book progressed. Holden is a young man with a lot of serious issues to work out. We know he’s had a hard time dealing with the death of his brother, and then we find out he has had several very uncomfortable run-ins with so-called perverts. He is a very confused young man. Ultimately, Holden was mourning the loss of his youth or at least his youthful vision of life. He gets furious at the thought of children seeing swear words scrolled across a wall; he doesn't want the loss of anymore innocent minds. That is why he likes Phoebe so much and why she is the reason he decided to snap out of it. I was hoping that in the resolution his parents would have found out about his troubles and gotten him some help. While I do think he did find some piece of mind on his own that day with Phoebe, more was needed to make sure Holden gets on the right path in life and doesn’t have another near mental breakdown.

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