I realized that I was 26 years old and had never read the classics, so now I’m catching up, one volume at a time. You can read the intro to this blog series here.
Part Three: The Catcher in the Rye
by James Roland
Thank God for persistence, because the first 40 pages of The Catcher in the Rye read like really bad lyrics from Panic! At The Disco.
That’s right, emo comes from the ’50s. Well, the spirit of emo seems to be timeless, anyway. Luckily, the outer trappings have changed with time; I think the only thing worse than black lipstick, infant-sized jeans, and greasy hair pasted against foreheads would be a storm of teenagers at the local mall wearing filthy tweed jackets and plaid hunting caps.
Catcher in the Rye is very modern; that’s what caught my attention first. It’s surprisingly undated despite the details. And somewhere within the simple, straightforward style is an underlying poetry, a complete arc of emotion adding nuance to all the graphic details.
The problem (or the genius) is that this emotion doesn’t arrive for 40 pages. First you must endure the most annoying whiner to ever grace the page since Hamlet.
I was so annoyed that I almost quit reading, and then comes the scene where Holden fights with his college roommate. Trying so obviously to kill him, failing so miserably, and defeated on the floor all he can do is mutter about checkers.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I don’t care. You should read it, it’s about the most beautiful moment in literature that I’ve ever read.
If you make it to that point and can feel the magic, then read on. It will only take you a day; it’s so thin and easy to read that you’ll breeze through it.
This is what all angst poetry and weepy pop songs are trying to achieve; this is the essence of every young anger movement in the past five decades.
But unlike so many that attempt this type of first person(al) rant, Catcher in the Rye has a surprisingly likable narrator. Holden is so candid about his personal failings and so accurate in his estimations of culture that you allow him his angst. You worry about him as he descends into near madness.
And the ending!
Oh man. Partially dissatisfying because you just want him to call the girl! But also so daring when read amidst modern literature. The mere hint that the grown-ups might be right! That while his enlightened mind can see the true core of the socially elite, artistically void, and morally bankrupt, his anger will destroy him before he can do anything about it. And that he should do something about it rather than simply complain, and fixing the problem is actually quite simple: All he has to do is live. If he endures, he wins.
For those of you just joining, click here. For those of you reading along, here’s my upcoming list.
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Image used under Creative Commons license:
A Well-Thumbed Copy of Catcher in the Rye by No Trams To Lime Street
