Given how long The Catcher in the Rye had been sitting in my bookshelf and given its place (as one of the most widely read and discussed works) in the American literary canon, I’m pretty surprised that it took me this long to pick it up and finally read it. But then again, I hardly ever read for pleasure before my gap year so maybe this shouldn’t really be surprising. Unlike many of the other books I’ve read recently, I wouldn’t say that I have any concrete takeaways per se, but I still really enjoyed getting a glimpse into Holden Caulfield and J.D. Salinger’s psyche.
As cantankerous and judgmental as he is, as I read the novel, I grew to really like and empathize with Holden. I think it’s the quarantine angst. Although I wouldn’t say that I fully identified with Holden’s character, I did find myself laughing at and agreeing with his cynical remarks, and at times feeling sorry for how lonely he felt. And although I wouldn’t say that The Catcher in the Rye is a moving novel as a whole, I found the relationship between Holden and his younger sister Phoebe to be very heartfelt.
What’s one thing you really like?
When Phoebe asks Holden to name one thing that he likes a lot, he initially has trouble coming up with something, but then says,
“I like Allie. And I like doing what I’m doing right now. Sitting here with you, and talking, and thinking about stuff, and — ”
“Allie’s dead — You always say that! If somebody’s dead and everything, and in Heaven, then it isn’t really — “
“I know he’s dead! Don’t you think I know that? I can still like him, though, can’t I? Just because somebody’s dead, you don’t just stop liking them, for God’s sake — especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that’re alive and all.”
“Anyway, I like it now. I mean right now. Sitting here with you and just chewing the fat and horsing — ”
“That isn’t anything really!”
“It is so something really! Certainly it is! Why the hell isn’t it? People never think anything is anything really. I’m getting goddam sick of it.”
:( It made me sad to think that the first thing that came up in Holden’s mind was his brother Allie who’d died three years ago, and that Holden tells Phoebe that talking to her is the other thing he really likes, just for her to say “that isn’t anything really.” Phoebe is only ten years old, so I wouldn’t expect a ten-year-old girl to have the maturity or nurturing ability to affirm and comfort her older brother, but I did wonder what would have happened if Holden’s thoughts and feelings could have been reciprocated and validated by his family. Because he’s right — it certainly is something. There’s nothing wrong with family/family time being the thing that someone likes the most. In fact, shouldn’t family/family time be everyone’s most cherished and valued thing?
Although Phoebe doesn’t respond as warmly to Holden’s response as I’d hoped she would, given how unstable and self-destructive Holden was at the time of their conversation, it is very clear that she also loves him very dearly. When Holden asks for a little bit of money to spend before he can come back home, Phoebe gives him all of her Christmas money, which moves him to tears. When she meets up with him in front of the Museum of art, she has Holden’s hunting hat on, and begs to join him on his journey west.
About halfway into the book, I looked up J.D. Salinger’s biography to learn more about his life, and I was fascinated by not only his life story (him becoming a literary recluse, his multiple wives and affairs, and his relationships with his son and daughter regarding his privacy and legacy, etc.) but how much his life had permeated Holden’s life. In some ways it’s obvious and inevitable, but you really can’t separate the art from the artist.
