Booked Up For The Holiday

The Catcher In The Rye. What a brilliant book.

I had to travel down to Surrey last week, to carry out mundane tasks for the majority of the day. And it just so happened that I literally stumbled upon that book, just lying in the middle of my room. I still don’t know how it ended up there, as I certainly didn’t purchase it from a book store. I, under no circumstances, purchase books indiscriminately. Though, as luck would have it, I recognised the title, and appreciated that a mate had read it last year. He seemed to regard it as a good read, allowing myself to feel as though I could pick this book up off the floor, and give it a spin.

Without a doubt, it was the first time I was able to fully engross myself in a book. Often, I wouldn’t be intrigued by a certain section in a book; ergo I would then lose interest very quickly.

It didn’t take me too long to read. I only spent around a total of 12-14 hours hooked on it.

The book is written in first-person narrative, and follows the life of a depressed and disillusioned with life 17-year old boy called Holden Caulfield. It’s no surprise he hates everything with an unfortunate name like that. Or maybe I’m just being unnecessarily critical? Either way, his love for life has waned significantly over time, and he has come to the stage where precious few things can bring him pleasure. He constantly displays his disdain for the false or dull nature of other human beings, leading him to alienate (or, as should be said, ostracise; a realisation he makes early on) himself from many characters, including his roommate in school, and for very brief periods; an ex-girlfriend he still held a good relationship with, and his younger sister, whom he clearly adored (discovered through lovingly descriptive imagery prior to her appearance in the book).

The strange thing about Holden is that he doesn’t go out of his way to make enemies; he’ll happily engage in small talk with someone he says he both admires and despises at the same time, before eventually caving into his instincts and insulting them. Moreover, he will do favours for those he holds little to no respect for. Sometimes, these people may turn out to be people he doesn’t even know. When he leaves school after being kicked, we already know that he has built up a decent rapport with several former teachers, one of whom invites him to stay around his house for as long as he likes…and turns out to be a pervert. A pathological liar, Holden struggles to keep loose inter-personal relationships going, as the majority of them are founded on deceit.

Holden is a character who can experience extreme ups and downs (archetypal of many mid-teenagers), with more downs than ups. He talks about how he grows depressed easily in the most unordinary situations, and it’s often the case that the small things knock him about more than anything major.

The penultimate chapter of the book could be considered ambiguous by some in the way that it fails to explain where Holden’s motivation for rebuilding his life comes from, though in actuality, the implicit details are all too apparent; he realises he’s too heavy an influence on the life of his sister to go off and leave all that he knows behind.

Despite not liking the ending to this book, I thoroughly enjoyed the remainder of the text. The parallels one can draw with modern day British life, and the lifestyles of American children in the first half of the 20^th century are few and far between; however, it’s the attitude and outlook towards life (rebellion and defiance are points regularly brought up; a piece of attire known as a red hunting hat symbolises this, as Holden cares not for what people think of him when he wears it) of which many teenagers still have in this current age that allows a lot of young people today to pick it up and give it a read.

If, at a minimum, a male between the ages of 15-19 were unable to perceive a small part of their own person in the character of Holden Caulfield, it would be a tragedy.