The Catcher In The Rye" by J.D.Salinger
Yes, that’s what I wantto write about today:) It is a fiction novel. And this is the firstfiction novel, which I completed reading. Till now, I always readnon-fiction and philosophy. This is the first novel I ever read, and Ishould tell you, it was amazing, as it brought me so many old memoriesof my late teens in the hostel.
The story is narrated by a boyin his late teens named’Holden’. The story is woven in and around NewYork. The typical American style of writing is evident through out thenovel. That is more testified by the generous use of swearing words. Idon’t know, how old J.D.Salinger is, but he truly wrote from a teenagerheart.:)
I remember, almost all the story vividly. But I shouldtell you, it is more of a journey into a young adolescent boy’s mindrather than just a story. The whole book is woven very interestingly, and you will never get bored. It is not a classic, but it was specialfor me, as it was sent to me by my beloved from a foreign country.:)
Inthe initial part of the novel, Holden is put up in a hostel, and he hasbeen kicked out of school. So, he is now ready to leave the hostel. Buthis last day at the hostel takes him through many emotions, fear ofparents’ reaction, unfriendliness and meanness of the room mates, purposelessness of life and the like.
He soon flees from thehostel to New York and tries to attain calm. But his agony anddisturbance keeps growing. But, I should admit one thing, he is anadventurer. In late teens, he even goes to the extent of summoning aprostitute to his hotel room to take a try, but then feels guilty andlet her go. She later extorts money from him though:)
Theadolescent desires of sex and intoxication was evident through out. Iobserved that the boy enjoyed himself at small gestures of happiness, like meeting some nuns, or fooling around with 2 little boys in amuseum, spending time with his little sister, holding hands with anex-girlfriend in a movie, wearing a cow boy hat etc. It all goes toprove that happiness is just a state of mind:)
He describes hisrelationship with various girls and the kind of confusion andindecisiveness of a teenager’s mind is evident through out the novel.He is dissatisfied and in search of something, but doesn’t know what itis, so he keeps hitting at different things. The story has manycharacters, all of whom are described vividly, but the boy’s thoughtsjump from person to person, every once in a while. He even plans toelope with a girl, but the girl doesn’t find the idea appealing.:)
Onecharacter which was most appealing to me is of his little 10 year oldsister, ’Phoebe’. She is very intelligent and cute and understands him.At the end of the novel, he adventurously plans to flee from homeforever to make his own living at the west coast, but his little sisterinsists on accompanying him, and that episode was really cute. He then, realises the frivolity of his childish thoughts and the last fewmoments with his little sister were very sweet, atleast for me:)
Iam a loner, the only child of my parents. But when I read this novel, Ifelt I should have a little sister like’Phoebe’.There are many momentsin the novel, which held me back to an adolescent time in my life, allof which cannot be expounded here in words. But I felt very happy thatmy beloved had sent one of her favourite books to me, of her schooldays. She read the book translated in her own language along with me ina foreign country. Those days will always be cherished and remembered.