Wow! Pan Internet Tilt Protocol
Such a popular,famous or infamous little book depending on your view.Salinger’s masterpiece and highly guarded work.A contributing factor in John Lennons’murder maybe,maybe not.Also associated with the Reagan assassination attempt.Why is this I wonder?”The best book ever written in the English language” quoted the salesgirl as I purchased it for my daughter for her high school reading assignment.She said it with such conviction,I think both of us were stunned.I said nothing,just smiled,you know, that smile that conveys “yeah,I know what you mean”,too embarrassed to admit,”no kidding,never read it myself”.Well read it I did,finally.A book I should have read decades ago. It wasn’t required reading in my high school but I think I know why after reading it.It was a fun,fast read and kinda cool following Holden around.Seeing his anguish and disdain for those around him and the institutions he is forced to live within.Highly troubled yes,but you get the sense that he’ll be OK in the end.His period of adjustment from a youth to a young man can be seen in his attitude,his choices and his need to be different.Love pangs,sexual urges,smoking,drinking all the rights of passage are explored through Holdens’eyes.It is kind of a warped,more psychiatric version of Ferris Beuller only a fifties version with less phone use,no texting,E-mails, computer use or outside influence from rappers,TV or other idiotic distractions teenagers are bombarded with today.Just pure emotional dilemma which must be resolved from within. I must say I enjoyed it very much,could not put it down for long with each chapter an adventure.What will Holden do now?How is this kid going to handle this one?etc.The sweet portrait it paints is probably wasted on todays youth whom I fear just won’t get it.As a reader in my late forties,I could.Rediscovering ‘Catcher In The Rye’ was refreshing and diversionary. Just enough to take me away and escape to Manhattan for a few days.To be the companion of Holden Caulfield
