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That’s the inscription on the first page of my beat-up copy of J
By now, the pages are yellow, the white cover is creased, and the book has dog-ear bookmarks
Recently, I had the opportunity to reread Catcher and see how it held up
My primary reason for rereading Catcher is I’m working on writing a novel that is an
In revisiting The Catcher in the Rye, one of the main objectives I had was to get
If I could reach anywhere close to what Salinger manages to pull off, I thought, I would
The Catcher in the Rye is probably one of the most famous voicey narrators in the history
What I love about it is how the monologue is perfectly imperfect
It feels messy and scrambled, even though you know Salinger chose every single word with care
Now, as an adult, I felt just as drawn into the story as I was back when
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I definitely didn’t remember how so much of the book is compressed into essentially a few
To me, that first day and night felt endless, as I’m sure it was for Holden,
Another thing I noticed more this time around is how trauma guides Holden’s thoughts, emotions, and
I definitely wasn’t thinking about this when I read it as a teenager
Holden thinks of him often, and, in my opinion, it is the reason Holden is stuck in
Or possibly because he doesn’t want to grow up without Allie growing up, kind of like
As an adult reader, I’m better trained to look for the trauma in Holden than I
This has many craft takeaways for me; trauma is something that naturally emerges in conversation and narration
Considering my main character also experiences trauma early in his life, Salinger’s novel was a masterclass
Like many, many others who share my feelings about the book, I felt the book spoke right
Just as Holden felt disillusioned, misunderstood, and alienated, so, too, did I