The Catcher in the Rye- A book review

 

I just completed The Catcher in the Rye  and I still have no idea what the plot or the theme or the point of this book was. Or why it was written.

Why did you write this book J.D. Salinger?

This was a slow read for me, probably because it was a slow book.

I read this book because I was getting tired of eBooks and this book just sat on my shelf mocking me. This quarantine has me functioning on a low budget and no friends. I just want to buy some books or borrow them from people. Can I borrow people. Is people starved a thing? But right now people are like cats, you have to coax them to meet you, but they still don’t. Do I have to give them the right kind of food? What is the right kind of food?  Yo people of the world what kind of food do you like.

Let’s talk about the book though. Maybe I read it at a wrong age. I am too old for this shit. There was too much teenage. Too much angst. Like, just take a chill pill bro. Please relax. But then I am in college and college students are 50 year olds with joint pains and a depressed brain of a 100-year-old monk in the Himalayas. Maybe monks are not depressed, just I am. I wish I can go to the Himalayas and become a monk. I can’t do college anymore. I listened to Save Me from BTS. But BTS didn’t save me. BTS please save me. (Don’t tell Namjoon that I don’t want to do college. I like my eyebrows.)

This book was so random. The lack of a definite plot is bugging the hell out of me. I regret my sister. Can I dump her. We are not related anymore. I have cancelled my sisterhood. That was how random it was. Nothing made sense. Also the number of times the sentence “It Killed me” appeared in the book made me wanna kill Holden.

But the thing is I still wanted to read the book. I was curious as to what will happen, but mostly if there is a plot or not. The end result was I couldn’t put the book down and add it to my list of DNFs nor did I have the energy to read it very fast and be done with is. So, I read it slowly and cursed Holden the entire time.

The last few chapters can be taken as a climax of sorts. The main character breaks down, although the cause is not exactly well defined. I could tell you that it was a very clever depiction of how pressure and frustration and depression work, where people just sometimes can’t do it anymore and start crying, and it was. It was a beautiful representation of how when you are disillusioned with the world and depressed with your circumstances, sometimes the world gets to you. But I will not, because I am feeling very petty today. Also I read a whole damn book about a teenage boy who did nothing but judge other people all day every day. So, I will not call the book clever because all it made me feel was tired and angry, and at nearly every point of the story I wanted to shake Holden and make him shut up. I could call this book witty as it called out many social behaviours which were ridiculous and hypocritical, but I will not because I still haven’t figured out why every list titled ‘books to read before you die’ has this book in it.

I read the book. I gained nothing.

I don’t know if I am the right audience for it.

I haven’t felt pettiness in a long while now. Should I thank this book for it? Probably. But will I? No, absolutely not. Because I am feeling very petty today. Also could someone tell that stupid Holden boy that he has got a crush on Jane.

My god! Do boys actually think like that? It killed me. It really did. I am dead now. Please cremate me and scatter my ashes in the Amazon rainforest.

I liked Pheobe though.  She was cute.

Happy Reading

Toodles

P.S. It’s the Amazon rainforest because I have always wanted to visit, and if I die before visiting at least my ashes will.

P.P.S. Holden Caulfield is a whiney teenage asshole and you know it.