Sharop
01-04-2006, 06:59 PM
Has anyone here read this book? I'm reading it right now, and am really enjoying it. If anyone here is looking for something new to read, I'd recommend "The Catcher in the Rye."
It's quite a controversial book, though - it's been banned numerous times, and Mark Chapman, who killed John Lennon, was obssessed with the book. He started reading it right after he killed him and apparently the book was part of his reason for killing John - the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, hated "phonies" and Mark Chapman decided John was one of them.
It's not a particularly happy book, although it can be funny. The narrator, Holden Caulfield, is quite bitter and cynical, and he seems to dislike the adult world a good deal. To give a few details of the plot: the book begins with Holden in some kind of psychiatric hospital or sanitarium where he tells the reader of the events of a few days in December 1949. He was expelled from his school, Pencey Prep, for failing four of his five subjects (he passed English) and was not allowed to return after the school broke up for the Christmas break. Although there were a few days to go until the term ended, Holden decided to leave early after some bad experiences and spent a few days in New York.
Here are some quotes: (there's quite a lot of strong language in the book, although there's not much in the quotes I posted. What little there is, I've placed asterisks in the words.)
The introduction:
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 c**p, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them. They're quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They're nice and all - I'm not saying that - but they're also touchy as hell. Besides, I'm not going to give you my whole go**am autohbiography or anything. I'll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy.
From chapter three:
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.
A third:
What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would've done it, too, if I'd been sure somebody'd cover me up as soon as I landed. I didn't want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory.
Finally, a fourth:
What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy.
It's quite a controversial book, though - it's been banned numerous times, and Mark Chapman, who killed John Lennon, was obssessed with the book. He started reading it right after he killed him and apparently the book was part of his reason for killing John - the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, hated "phonies" and Mark Chapman decided John was one of them.
It's not a particularly happy book, although it can be funny. The narrator, Holden Caulfield, is quite bitter and cynical, and he seems to dislike the adult world a good deal. To give a few details of the plot: the book begins with Holden in some kind of psychiatric hospital or sanitarium where he tells the reader of the events of a few days in December 1949. He was expelled from his school, Pencey Prep, for failing four of his five subjects (he passed English) and was not allowed to return after the school broke up for the Christmas break. Although there were a few days to go until the term ended, Holden decided to leave early after some bad experiences and spent a few days in New York.
Here are some quotes: (there's quite a lot of strong language in the book, although there's not much in the quotes I posted. What little there is, I've placed asterisks in the words.)
The introduction:
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 c**p, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them. They're quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They're nice and all - I'm not saying that - but they're also touchy as hell. Besides, I'm not going to give you my whole go**am autohbiography or anything. I'll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy.
From chapter three:
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.
A third:
What I really felt like, though, was committing suicide. I felt like jumping out the window. I probably would've done it, too, if I'd been sure somebody'd cover me up as soon as I landed. I didn't want a bunch of stupid rubbernecks looking at me when I was all gory.
Finally, a fourth:
What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy.