Whiner In The Rye

From the beginning of this book I think in my mind it was doomed. The tale of Holden Claulfied is one of extreme teenage angst. Holden having found himself being kicked out of another expensive boys college for once again failing all subjects but English leaves to spend a couple of days in New York instead of going straight to his parents. During this mini adventure of self-recovery we learn vaguely of Holden’s past, the people he knows and of his seeming mental instability. Starting with his last day at Pency we meet a couple of his ex- fellow students and we slowly begin to see his disgust and lack of appreciation for practically anyone. As he narrates to us the next few days culminating in his return to his parents bosom Holden meets a number of people new and old and casts cynical judgement over all save two nuns. He has a fair deal of money available to him and seems to be from a high class. He does several things all of little consequence and doesn’t finish all his back story telling us how he doesn’t want to talk about it.

My problems with this book began stacking up from page one, I have to admit I am not a big fan of the style of narration, on top of this although I can appreciate in some areas the poor writing is more a reflection of the language of the time in the majority of places the writing is simple poor. More importantly the story is boring and due to the way it is written it is also at time disjointed skipping bits Holden decides he doesn’t actually want to tell us. One fine example of this is at the end where Holden’s stay at hospital and his interaction with the staff and his psychoanalyst is simply cut out, just because. On top of these major things where numerous other problems I had, mainly with the plot. The biggest problem however was the main character, a self-obsessed teen with virtually no care for anyone else and a boxful of poor excuses when it comes to himself. He comes across as stuck up and nauseating and I found it impossible to care for him at all even when he is getting beaten up by a pimp. The constant criticism of others and the world and the annoying pessimism grates, many say that this book is a great reflection of adolescence however I find it a rather extreme, unfair and damning reflection. One issue that comes across and is immensely ironic is despite Holden’s accusations of everyone but him being a phony his character and the book seems to be just that; phoney.

In conclusion this appears to be a man writing about adolescence long forgotten, the writing style is poor and the characters are unlikable. Though I don’t like to be overdramatic I think this book is the worst book I have ever read, if you want to know the truth.