A reclusive author who weathered the storm of popularity and censorship. J.D. Salinger will be missed.
"I hope to hell that when I do die somebody has the sense to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetary. 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."
Didn't Salinger write a book about an up and coming baseball player who gets his start down at the neighborhood boys club? "Catcher in the Y"
If ever there was a textbook case of “How to sell a novel,” Salinger’s early career was it. The Catcher in the Rye had a very interesting publishing history – alternatively loved and hated – before becoming a cult classic. It also helped that the postwar years were the last halcyon days of publishing in America. One also has to wonder if Salinger’s creation of himself as the Ultimate Recluse wasn’t as much a contributor to his fame as a writing career that produced nothing after the 1960s. Show of hands, please. How many here have actually read Catcher and not just heard about it?
I read it. To this day I do not understand why people named their kids after the main character. That kid was annoying, bitchy, and possibly retarded.
Same here. It's a classic example of first-person narration. A quick, simple book, well worth a read.
I read it in college. It was OK. He had grey hair and was in a bar underage. That's about all I remember about it. Somewhere on par with Kerouac's "The Road" in being a quick, must-read.
I'm wondering if it's still required reading in high schools. Interesting case of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Some municipalities tried to ban the book in the Sixties, but it became part of the curriculum in the Seventies and onward. Kind of a Lady Chatterley's Lover for the acne-cream set.
I finally read it a couple years ago. It was...okay...but I thought the main character was generally annoying.
It was part of the curriculum when I was in school in the mid to late 90's. I don't think it resonated as much with my generation. Some other books I remember reading in high school: -Gulliver's Travels -A Canticle for Leibowitz -On the Beach -Centennial -Turn of the Screw (Ugh) -Slaughterhouse Five -Catch 22 A lot of those were from a class called "Novels and Satire", which I don't think is very universal as far as high school classes go.
