i cannot stand it.
i have liked, to say the least, every single curriculum-assigned book i've had since seventh or eighth grade, including lord of the flies in 8th. dorky? probably, but i don't mind. but Catcher In the Rye is by far the worst book i've ever had to read - it's excruciatingly boring. "Phony" is said more than the word "the" in this book. he repeats himself and rephrases it. he is completely infatuated with the girl he knew when he was younger, Susan i think. nothing is happening other than him not sleeping, going to bars, smoking a thousand cigarettes a day, lying, lying, lying, telling the reader about his endless list of pet peeves and hates, and telling us about his family - mainly his little sister. the entire 26 chapters of this book takes place over three days, and he does just about the same old, predictable stuff every day. my guess is nothing new and intriguing happens until the last 5 or 6 chapters. i'm on chapter 17. :/
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I think "Catcher" is in acquired taste. It's personally one of my favorite books, but I could see why many people wouldn't necessarily enjoy it.
I think that Salinger's writing is imminent of that time period. A lot of writers wrote books that were very "This is what's happening" and that's simply what the book is about. Now, I know that like all books we read in school, we need to look for the symbolism. And granted, there is some in "Catcher" but from what I understood and read about Salinger, it's one of the books where not everything is about symbolism.
For me, it's about just kind of going through life. Ultimately, the reason why it takes place in 3 days is because it's trying to demonstrate how what he experience in those 3 days drove him to where he ends up at the beginning of the book.
Not trying to tell you why you should like the book, obviously. Because I personally wasn't a big fan of "The Great Gatsby" so, I know what's like being forced to read something you don't want to.
This ended up being a lot longer than I expected, so I'll end it here, haha.
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