From Our Editors
This classic 1951 novel tells the tale of a defiant 16-year-old
prep school student who runs away to New York City after getting
expelled. Although Holden Caulfield is more cynical than a Gen-Xer,
his pain and loneliness slowly escape from underneath his tough
exterior. Holden is one of the literary world's most memorable
characters, which is why The Catcher in the Rye lives on
in high schools today. Author J.D. Salinger's cutting language and
adult themes continue to challenge and fascinate.
From the Publisher
Anyone who has read J.D. Salinger''s New Yorker stories ? particularly A Perfect Day for Bananafish, Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut, The Laughing Man, and For Esme ? With Love and Squalor, will not be surprised by the fact that his first novel is fully of children. The hero-narrator of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it. There are many voices in this novel: children''s voices, adult voices, underground voices-but Holden''s voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own vernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.
Employee Review Alison from Chapters # 768, Richmond, BC
This modern classic tells the story of Holden Caulfield in his own words. Holden is an angry but sensitive teenager who is expelled from Pencey, the prestigious boys' school in Pennsylvania. He narrates the events of the three days he spends in New York before returning home to his parents. This book reminded me of The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton with a more daring subject matter. This is an enjoyable read that is as relevant today as when it was written in 1945.
About the Author
More than 20 years of seclusion and silence have taken their toll on J. D. Salinger's literary reputation, but the impact made by The Catcher in The Rye (1951) and the Glass family stories was deep enough to make a lasting impression and to assure his continued readership. Salinger was born in New York City of Jewish and Scottish-Irish extraction. He attended Manhattan public schools, a military academy in Pennsylvania, and three colleges, but received no degrees. "A happy tourist's year in Europe," he wrote in 1955, "when I was eighteen and nineteen. In the Army from '42 to '46, most of the time with the Fourth Division. . . . I've been writing since I was fifteen or so. My short stories have appeared in a number of magazines over the last ten years, mostly---and most happily---in the New Yorker. I worked on "The "Catcher in the Rye,' on and off, for ten years" (Twentieth Century Authors). "Remarkable and absorb-ing . . . profoundly moving . . . magic," Harrison Smith called this story. The Catcher has been an extremely popular book among young people ever since its appearance and has brought Salinger an international reputation. Franny and Zooey (1961) is composed of two long New Yorker stories, which appeared in 1955 and 1957, recording a significant weekend in the lives of Franny Glass, a troubled 20-year-old college student, and her brother Zooey, a television actor. Raise High the Roof Beam, (1963) is another story of the Glass family. There are seven Glass children, "two of whom are now dead and all of whom were child prodigies." Salinger gradually withdrew from public life and the literary scene during the 1950s. He had discovered Zen during his days in Greenwich Village after the war, and that philosophy may have encouraged his deeper immersion in meditation and writing. Unfortunately, however, Salinger's withdrawal has not led to increased creativity---at least not visibly. As of 1992, his years of seclusion since 1963 had produced only silence, and his critical reputation, which peaked in the early 1960s, has suffered accordingly. The Catcher in the Rye, however, remains a standard text in high school and college classrooms, and a loyal following of readers continues to hope for a continuation of the Glass family saga. They feel that, when and if that work is completed, it will be one of the masterworks of twentieth-century fiction. Salinger now lives a somewhat reclusive life in Cornish, New Hampshire, where he may still be writing. He has occasionally been involved in lawsuits concerning unauthorized use of his writings.
Mass Market Paperbound
224 Pages, 4.25 x 6.75 x 0.62 IN
May 1, 1991
Little, Brown And Company
0316769487
9780316769488