Catcher in the Rye (1951) by J.D. Salinger

1,001 Novels: A Library of America

Catcher in the Rye (1951)

by J.D. Salinger

New York: 27/105
Manhattan:  1/34

   I wanted to start the Manhattan category- get on the board- so to speak, and there is no more obvious a choice than Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.  I've heard second hand that this book is falling out of favor in secondary school because it scores a zero on the diversity meter and Holden really is a sullen bitch, but for my generation it was still a classic- I mention in my post about it for the 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die project- which I didn't get around to posting until 2020, twelve years after I started the project- that I still have my copy from freshman year English in my library in my law office and reread it for the project.   I don't think there is an Audiobook for Catcher in the Rye because Salinger was such a weirdo.   Here is the 2020 post:

Published 5/7/20
The Catcher in the Rye (1951)
 by J.D. Salinger


   Holden Caulfield, the teenaged narrator and protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye, was synonymous with the phrase "teen ennui" for a generation.   When I was growing up it was one of those rare books that was credible both inside the classroom and outside the classroom.  Outside the classroom, it was the midpoint in a line of books that leads to the 1960's.   Caulfield was the Bartleby of his day, a symbol of the power of "No."  The title comes from a Robert Burns poem:

“You know that song ‘If a body catch a body comin’ through the rye’? I’d like—”
“It’s ‘If a body meet a body coming through the rye’!” old Phoebe said.
“It’s a poem. By Robert Burns.”
“I know it’s a poem by Robert Burns.”
She was right, though. It is “If a body meet a body coming through the rye.”
I didn’t know it then, though.
“I thought it was ‘If a body catch a body,’”
I said. “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around—nobody big, I mean—except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be. I know it’s crazy.”

   Like The Hobbit,  I've owned the same copy of The Catcher in the Rye since High School- maybe since Junior High, but I haven't reread it since I read it for school.   Salinger is of course, extremely reclusive, and there has been a movie let alone t.v. version, making it the rare enduring media-property that has retained it's original form.  Compare to Normal People, who many people, including myself, have compared to The Catcher in the Rye.  The TV version on Hulu came out last week, and Normal People wasn't what you could call a huge seller, being more critically acclaimed because of the Booker Prize win than anything else.