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| The Catcher in the Rye | 
 enlarge | Author: J.d. Salinger
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
Buy Used: £2.00
You Save: £6.99 (78%)
New (33) from £3.45
Avg. Customer Rating:  239 reviews
Sales Rank: 99
Media: Paperback
Edition: Rev Ed
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 4.8 x 0.6
ISBN: 014023750X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780140237504
ASIN: 014023750X
Publication Date: August 4, 1994
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Over rated? Yes. Good? ...Yes May 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I suppose I hate over-rated books and go in hoping to hate this but I have to admit I did enjoy it. Its not, I don't think a great American novel. It's okay and it's an interesting story but I wouldn't say it's great. Also I have problems with people saying that it's a coming of age story. In a coming of age story people grow up, we see them grow up and change from boy to man. In this book though, we follow the protagonist Holden for a few days. I was also surprised at how non-imaginative and flat the narrative was, easy to read for the most part though which makes it quick and not too much hard work. So I'd say read it for yourself and see what the fuss is about.
 Thank God it's over May 18, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
For years I have heard snippets about this book. It turns up on classics lists, it's often cited as influential, and it has always been a book I have had on my own list of "must reads". I wish I hadn't bothered.
I absolutely hated it. The narrative style is irritating, condescending and boring. It's like reading a diary written by a spoilt, annoying, Emo teenager - self indulgent, repetitive and likely to leave you wanting to just slap the narrator while saying "for GOD'S SAKE, get over yourself".
By page ten I was praying for it to end.
Anyone considering reading this book should read through all the 1 star reviews first.
so so May 14, 2008
I can't really understand why this book is so well credited. I thought it was a pleasant read, made me giggle on a couple of occasions but nothing special.
The worst book I have ever read. April 16, 2008
6 out of 17 found this review helpful
I don't usually write reviews on Amazon as I think everyone views books differently and to force my views on other readers is unfair... and then I read this book.
Quite simply this is the worst book I have ever read. I am currently studying for a degree in English Literature so am used to searching for, and finding, the hidden depths in prose.
This book is the reason you're not allowed to dive in the shallow end of pools; the light refraction makes the water look deeper than it is, if you try you'll end up very cross with a banging headache. That, in a nutshell, is the effect of this book.
You may be told that its a classic, that its an important book; but consider the source: these people justify paying four figures for a dress with the excuse that 'the quality is better' when its made in the same sweatshop as George@ Asda clothing.
I have heard several myths about Salinger, all of which made the book seem more and more interesting: don't, whatever you do, fall for this. If he does have a hidden manuscript locked in a safe somewhere for God's sake I hope its left there, preferably burned in a house fire.
The entire book, for start to finish, is a justification to any bigoted idiot who says kids are worthless, idiotic, selfish, lazy morons because that is exactly what Holden in. Except we forget THIS WAS WRITTEN BY AN ADULT!! An adult who obviously has no faith in the young. The entire book can be reduced to one sentece: 'Bloody kids today. Not like in was in my day.'
This is a dangerous pessmistic book that shouts a lot but actually says nothing. Simmilar to the famous 'rivers of blood' speech. At best you will be left empty and a little ill after reading it, at worst you will like it (in which case you should be kept away from a keyboard until you see sense); for my part I was furious after reading it, that such a worthless, lazily written, self absorbed book has been allowed to creep into our classics list by adults who think they know what kids want. This book is the equivelant of a 'cool' Geography teacher who attempts to ingratiate himself with the 'cool kids' by swearing and 'getting down wiv da yoof!', when in actual fact he is a sad old man.
I didn't like it (if you hadn't worked that out already).
 Good enough to make you puke April 9, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
What a goddamn book. I must have read it about one thousand times at least. It really separates the wheat from the chaf, or the phoneys and the flits from the real deal, if you know what I mean. I can't stand phoneys, you know the sort of writers who go blah blah blah isn't life hard and all, when really, all you've got to do is get on with it. Writing, nowadays, it is all moaning and whining by some phoney or another, and the publishers, well, they love all that stuff, they go crazy for it, it strikes me they wouldn't know a good book if it came and bit them on the rear end. This book though, well, it's so good, it's enough to make you want to go out and shoot a Beatle, it really is. I only hope they never make a movie of this damn thing, that would be the worst thing ever I shouldn't guess, if they did that I think I would puke up all over myself, I really would
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