Rye

The why of the Rye

Oh look, a BBC magazine piece on the Catcher. By coincidence I just read 'Catcher in the Rye' only a few weeks ago. It was just 50p from a charity shop - so I thought I'd give it a go. Not only that - I was thinking about it again this very morning for some reason. I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't see what the fuss is about. As I was reading it I was thinking- oh well, maybe things were so different all those years back - this was a bit of shocker then. But why it's kept on being a classic over the decades... I just don't get it.

I'd add to their neat little run down of the story that they didn't mention the death of one of Holden's class mates at the hands of bullies - and I got the sense that there was a layer of quiet post-traumatic stress syndrome going on there in among all the self-absorbed narcissistic teenage angst. I read between the lines that Caulfield might have had a nervous breakdown at the end of his New York 'adventures' - and after getting better was off to start at a new college... (I might be wrong. I might have read too much in there. But it makes sense to me - so I'm sticking by it.)