The Catcher in the Rye

No doubt this would be a five-star experience if I'd read it as a teenager.

It stirs similar sentiments to those felt through Lord of the Flies and how difficult adolescence can be in an unfair society that's geared toward the expectations and comforts of older generations.

As a young person growing up, your main perspective is the reality of right now and how impossible it all seems when, as is the case with main character, Holden Caulfield, he's unable to deal with it all as an extremely privileged young man with the world at his fingertips but with so much to throw away.

The book is funny, irreverent, rebellious and even sacrilegious at times, with the word "bastard" thrown around with reckless abandon, having been banned from schools because of the cynical and sarcastic "f*ck you" attitude, almost nasty in places, and although tame by today's standards in comparison to 1951 it's difficult to understand at a glance how this could be included in school curriculums as a coming of age story that goes full circle and gets rather sweet and endearing by the end, especially the amazing relationship with little sister, Phoebe.

Catcher has strong elements of The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, as well as "carpe diem / seize the day" moments from the Dead Poets Society and even a bit of Good Will Hunting, in the sense that it'll turn out well in the end if you want it to, if you're determined enough, and life is essentially a wonderful thing to grasp and behold.

Was J.D. Salinger trying to emulate James Joyce with his stream of consciousness, three days in the life of Holden Caulfield thing? The book is juvenile and dare I say it, even throwaway in places, but that's from the perspective of a man who missed the boat and didn't appreciate this novel when he was young.

It's also rated in the top 50 books of all time by all sorts of publications and is definitely worth your time as a mostly easy-going and relatively short read.

As it stands, four stars as a rewarding experience that's not quite life changing due to my retrospective perspective.