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A review by levijs
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
4.0
Perhaps Salinger's greatest achievement here is that he finds a way to articulate those seemingly inarticulable bouts of life-doubt and sadness that strike as fast and as bright as lightening – too fast to ponder, too intense to dwell on. And he does so using a 16 year old’s voice, no less.
Holden is a great balance—really, tension not balance—between existential hardboiled-dom and good ol’ childlike tenderness. This tension finds representation best in Holden’s criticisms of who and what he perceives to be as ‘phony’. And it’s with the business of phonies that Salinger presents the essential paradox at the heart of the pursuit of authenticity – that is, how to satiate one’s hunger for authenticity without engineering it into existence. Viewed more broadly, Salinger seems to be toying with the idea that idealism and criticalness are necessarily related. Ideals can only be realized through the lens of criticism is one way of putting it.
My only gripe is that the penultimate chapter (where Holden comes to himself(?)) is predictable and heavy handed even if affecting. And how affecting the novel is! in a strange, 16 year old going thru it kinda way.
Holden is a great balance—really, tension not balance—between existential hardboiled-dom and good ol’ childlike tenderness. This tension finds representation best in Holden’s criticisms of who and what he perceives to be as ‘phony’. And it’s with the business of phonies that Salinger presents the essential paradox at the heart of the pursuit of authenticity – that is, how to satiate one’s hunger for authenticity without engineering it into existence. Viewed more broadly, Salinger seems to be toying with the idea that idealism and criticalness are necessarily related. Ideals can only be realized through the lens of criticism is one way of putting it.
My only gripe is that the penultimate chapter (where Holden comes to himself(?)) is predictable and heavy handed even if affecting. And how affecting the novel is! in a strange, 16 year old going thru it kinda way.