A review by noorandbooks
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

5.0

When you're dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody.

I'd tell Holden to get some therapy but I doubt he could make it a minute without calling the therapist a phony

The ending really threw me off guard!

Spoiler

It went from Holden about to start bawling his eyes out, having found 'happiness' to his story suddenly ending? Nuh-uh, you're not fooling me. He goes through the entire book having such shallow logic, depressing the hell out of himself and ruining his mental health, just for it to go away with a small moment of relief? I feel like his 'happiness' juxtaposed with the rain suddenly pouring with his sister on the ride symbolizes just how much of a mess he is. He didn't find some kind of 'salvation' for himself.

Buuut, this is a review, not an analysis.

I found myself a lot more amused than I expected by this book! I didn't really have any expectations going in, other than it would be good and I would probably like it because I have a thing for messed-up protagonists. And oh boy, did Holden Caulfield deliver. One of the most polarizing protagonists in literary history for a reason.

As far as the plot goes, there wasn't much that actually 'happened' so to say. It's just a collection of moments after Holden leaves Pencey, with his real cheerful narration being the point of it. I loved him. The way he expresses his opinions is so juvenile that it kind of hurts seeing him classify himself as 'not a child' based on his lack of 'innocence', because he's just so...

"This fall I think you’re riding for—it’s a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn’t permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling."