March
2010
CATCHER
IN THE RYE
By J. D. Salinger
The
highly successful Catcher is J. D. Salinger's only published novel.
It is narrated by seventeen-year-old Holden Caulfield, a schoolboy in
rebellion against the dubious values of the adult world.
In 1949, while "recovering" in a California sanitorium,
17-year-old Holden relates events that occurred during three December days
in 1948 when he was sixteen. Within this part of the story, Holden
frequently flashes back to experiences and people from earlier in his
life.
The novel came out in 1951, a time of anxious Cold War
conformity and the dawn of modern adolescence.
The
popularity of the novel and debate over its redeeming social value have
never faltered since its initial publication, due in no small part to the
fact that J.D. Salinger was a recluse.