by Renee Asher

Created on: March 13, 2007   Last Updated: December 07, 2011

When J.D. Salinger penned this simple coming of age story about a snotty kid named Holden Caulfield, I venture to say he had no idea what it would become.

"The Catcher in the Rye", or as it is known in its cult following "The Catcher", has worked its way through odds stacked against it that would make the story's young anti-hero tremble, to become a story that if you don't know it, you know of it. Once banned for using the "F" word too many times, later brought up in the case against John Lennon's murderer and clung to by angsty adolescents of all ages, this book is nothing if not iconic. As we follow Holden through his crash course in growing up, we are immediately pulled in, we do more than empathize, we know.

Holden, the hero of this tale, if not a "loser" by the standards of his peers and authority figures, takes us on an impromptu journey to New York, after being kicked out of (yet another) prep school, that proves to be much more than a weekend in the city. As Holden narrates his tale with crude honesty and punctuated with swear words, we begin to realize something. Although most of us cannot relate to Holden on all levels, there are plenty of things we can empathize with him on - his distaste for "phonies", his realization that some of the people he looked up to and idolized don't actually live up to the standards which he thought they should have, and his desire to prove to himself that he can be something more than just what is expected of him.

Again, this story is nothing if not iconic. If read as a teenager, I think it hits nerves and feelings in a way many of us have never felt, and if read as an adult, I think it can take you back a little to those times when you felt so angst ridden and dissatisfied in just "waiting".

Whether reading it for the first time, or brushing the dust off your old paperback copy, I think it is a great read for adults and teenagers alike.

Learn more about this author, Renee Asher.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.