| | The Catcher in the Rye |  | Author: J. D. Salinger
Publisher: Franklin Watts
Category: Book
Buy Used: £7.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  246 reviews
Media: School & Library Binding
Edition: Lrg
ISBN: 0531001725
EAN: 9780531001721
ASIN: 0531001725
Publication Date: June 1973
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: We dispatch within two business days from the U.S.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 I Missed the boat May 26, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I think I was too old when I first read this book. This is a book which should be read in one's late teens, preferably alongside the discovery of Sylvia Plath. It is one of the classic novels of disaffected youth, a young man, lost in his own life, wanders aimlessly making chance encounters which force him to look at his experiences and potentially make meaning out of what seems empty and vacant. It just really doesn't cut the mustard in your early thirties with three small kids.
I'm afraid that I had little time or sympathy for the protagonist and found the whole thing faintly boring. It is undoubtedly well written, and as I say, if I had discovered it at the age of seventeen it probably would have deeply affected me. I'm quite disappointed that I missed the boat on this one.
Over rated? Yes. Good? ...Yes May 19, 2008
2 out of 2 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
3 out of 10 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.
 Good enough to make you puke April 9, 2008
2 out of 3 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
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
