Lies, Lies. Lies.

“I’m the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It’s awful. If I’m on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I’m going, I’m liable to say I’m going to the opera...” begins Chapter Three of J.D. Salinger’s ”The Catcher In The Rye”..

Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of Salinger’s story, is a boy on the verge of completing his adolescence and joining the ranks of mature adult (hopefully)... he’s none to happy about that basic fact, though.... or any basic fact, come to think of it. Holden is sometimes funny, sometimes depressing, and always shadowed by an undauntable sarcasm on life in general. Holden is a character that, once read, you won’t ever, ever forget.

Salinger mapped out the mind of Holden Caulfield with an impeccable genius for creating remarkable characters. Once the reader is introduced to the unusual Holden Caulfield, that mysterious door has been opened, the door into this young mind - that he/she must keep reading. Salinger, in no way, allows the reader to become bored or capable of ignoring one single line within the pages of this intriguing text... Holden is as complex and simple, at the same time, as a teenager can possibly get. He is like...??? Now, there you go! There’s no way I can really describe such an original. What a Character?!?

J. D. Salinger, the author of ”The Catcher In The Rye”. is notorious not only for his literary talents, but also for his personal lifestyle choices, which are mystifyingly similar to a dream that his ”The Catcher In The Rye”. character, Holden Caulfield, had ... basically envisioning becoming a recluse, who lives his life in complete solitude, with the exclusion [or should that be inclusion] of his immediate family, of course. There are other striking examples and parallel circumstances surrounding the real life of J.D. Salinger and the fiction life of Holden Caulfield.

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” - Holden Caulfield begins his story in ”The Catcher In The Rye”. by J.D. Salinger - You might want to read “Dream Catcher”, A memoir by Margaret A. Salinger, [J.D. Salinger’s daughter], for a more complete analysis of her father and his own character traits. She begins her Introduction with “I grew up in a world nearly devoid of living people...”

”The Catcher In The Rye”. is one of those literary classics that will remind you why English teachers press students into reading the classics. Despite all the foul language, including plenty of lousy goddam’s and old hell’s that just kills me... {if you read the book you’ll understand this line better}... Salinger created a character named Holden Caulfield who is so complete, so genuine and real, that he is not a character at all. He’s that kid down the street... you know the one that seems so absent minded and is always flunking out of mathematics or the one who makes you wonder, just a little, if he’s really that pessimistic... at his age.

Holden is funny and fragile, interesting and barely aware that he’s just a kid and doesn’t, as yet, have the right to such cynical impressions and morose thinking habits. So, how does it feel to be old Holden Caulfield himself? Just read ”The Catcher In The Rye”. and you’ll know old Holden better than he knows himself.

With Holden, you will visit places you’ve never gone before, see life as you’ve never seen it before and know that what you’re reading is incredibly intriguing, despite it’s meager 214 pages and short time span of approximately 48 hours in the life of Holden Caulfield. As you read, you’ll see life from a different angle and grasp something inside this character that you haven’t seen in any character before him. After you meet him, Holden will forever change you... he is one of those rare characters that remains with you long after you’ve read the last page and placed the book back on it’s proper shelf space.

You might catch yourself thinking along the lines of... “hey, this guy is crazy as hell” and well, there you’ll find him, opening up on himself with a line like, “I told you I’m crazy... I’m a madman” or some such personal revelation. And, it’s so FUNNY... the things he says and the way he reminds you that’s he’s just a kid and way too depressing for such inner reflection, melancholy and all that. Yet, he is... all that. And so much more. Good old Holden Caulfield. He’ll have you up late at night, reading his thoughts. That’s for sure. If J.D. Salinger had thought to, he could have created a complete series of Holden books. Only, truthfully, Holden is all the better because you know, once you’ve completed this one, you won’t ever meet a character like him in another book. Like that perfect restaurant with the “atmosphere” or that incredible cologne you just caught a whiff of, Holden Caulfield is one of those rare literary finds that might be imitated or impersonated, but could never be duplicated.

The ending leaves you wondering but invites you to ponder... and, like any book worth the paper it’s printed on, feeling just a little like you’ve been the recipient of some phenomenal gift, a present from somewhere deep inside some author’s head. This time the gift is ”The Catcher In The Rye”. and the author is J.D. Salinger. Read it... afterwards, you won’t have to ask me why I recommend it so highly.

The Catcher In The Rye
by J.D. Salinger
(C) 1945, 1946, 1951 by J.D. Salinger
One incident published in a different form in Collier’s, Dec. 1945
One incident published in a different form in The New Yorker, Dec. 1946
Published by Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 0-316-76948-7

For more about this author, read his daughter’s memoir:
Dream Catcher, A Memoir
by Margaret A. Salinger
(C)2000 by Margaret A. Salinger
ISBN: 0-671-04281-5