Catcher in the Rye

Hey! I'm Kimber.

This is my first post here at Banned Books. One of the books on my Banned Books challenge was "Catcher in the Rye". It is a 'coming of age' novel that has be compared to "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". I don't think that is too much of a stretch.

The main character in "Catcher" is Holden, a 16 year old boy/man. Holden seems to be going through many of the changes that come with adulthood, but they seem especially challenging for him. He seems to be searching for something, some companionship, some comfort, but he also seems to be pushing away every person he comes in contact with through his socially misfit ways.

The two people Holden seems to love and seems to find no fault with are his older brother, Allie, who is dead, and his younger sister, Phoebe.

"Catcher" was on the Banned list from the early 50's for its "excess vulgar language, sexual scenes, things concerning moral issues, excessive violence, and anything dealing with the occult." Of course, we are much less restrictive about such things in 2010... aren't we?? I don't know.

JD Salinger says, about his book being banned: "Some of my best friends are children. In fact, all my best friends are children. It's almost unbearable for me to realize that my book will be kept on a shelf out of their reach."

"Catcher" is disturbing and dark and depressing. Holden never seems to get a break. I found myself constantly pulling for him to just go home or to stop being so bleak. In the end, Holden does get his break...

But you'll have to read the book to find out how!