Different, Odd and Disturbing. Review on Catcher in the Rye, The - Salinger

Different, Odd and Disturbing

Summary of the Story

Holden Caulfield is a teenager struggling in the mouth of madness; he is consciously and helplessly nearing a point of complete nervous breakdown. Expelled from yet another prep school due to a very bad performance he decides to spend a few days loitering around before returning back to his parent’s home. The events that make up those few days of his life, his thoughts and views about his past, the people in his life and in general everything around him form the story. The story is told solely in the point of view of the main character. It is a monologue which indirectly probes at the human state of mind, adolescence, adulthood and individual sanity.

About the Book

For an otherwise voracious reader, I spent too much time trying to finish this book once for all. At every attempt, something about the book repelled me from reading further. Reading it was seriously a torture, but I kept reading just for the heck of it. That too immediately after reading - the humorlessly different yet thought provoking ‘Catch 22’, I found this book totally soundless, dragging, dry and very, very irritating. The apparent emptiness that seemed to evolve from the book repelled me. I resisted the urge to throw the book away, in the hope of finding something worth while on the remaining chapters.

It is the first book that I have ever read which is completely written in slang. So, it is simply ridiculous to comment on the language. If the intention of the author had been to drive the ordinary nature of the main character through the use of slang, tendency to repeat certain words and use of noticeably limited range in vocabulary then, he has succeeded clearly.

About Holden

At the beginning, Holden monologue seemed erroneously replete with wrong opinions. It seemed to paint a faulty picture of a world, where everyone but Holden was a phony. Holden seemed to lack empathy. As he found no heart in others that needs to be appreciated and loved, as he trashed people around without mercy through his bitter comments. And he seemed like an overgrown selfish child who for his own well formed immature reasons refuses to take reality as it is. Though there were occasional hints of a tragic childhood, there seemed no justification to his depressive mood. Certainly not heroic, not the way the protagonist should be. And who has the time and patience to listen to such a bad loser’s dry, hopeless thoughts, memoirs and experiences.

After a little probing …

Isn’t Holden right? Most of us (particularly in MS) would have felt like Holden in some ways. That is exactly why we all end up lashing everything or everyone we perceive or even imagine as phony through a review. We write simple reviews made of words powerful enough to tear fame and glory to bits, change laurels to ridicule and what not. We all know the art of ripping apart something or someone to feel exhilarated. Do we lack empathy as much as Holden?

Isn’t there an odd similarity between us and Holden? For inside us there is certainly a mad counterpart lurking. A split section of our self is clearly disgusted at all the odd happenings in the society, it refuses to step in to the adult world filled with phonies and it desperately seeks expression of revulsion at the same. The degree by which we find the society odd is somehow attributed to our own self and how odd it is.

Like the adamant over grown child who refuses to take what is given to it, we refuse to accept what is happening around us most of the time. We cannot imagine living quietly when, say a ‘Himesh Reshamiya’ is being called the country’s latest singing sensation or a ‘Emraan Hashmi’ is being branded as the country’s latest lover boy. Very much the way Holden refuses to accept the ‘phony play’ which his ‘phony girl friend’ liked very much.

We have to issue some profoundly satisfyingly, potentially nasty and seriously castigating comments at least every time we get to hear Himesh’s pathetic squeaks in the name of singing or when ever we get to watch Emraan’s ‘what-ever’ antics in the name of romancing. So very much like Holden, though we suppress such thoughts and succeed in maintaining sanity.

Conclusion:

I was curious at the odd mix of feelings that I felt while and after reading the book. So, I searched about it in the net, and found that the book was banned in America after being found in possession of some John Lennon who murdered some Mark Chapman. It was supposedly ascribed to have some disturbing content that would be too upsetting for an already disturbing mind.

The story offers no conclusion and ends with no clear idea of what happens to Holden. The end is left to the imagination of the reader for good. In total, ‘Catcher in The Rye’ is a Different, Odd and Disturbing book.

After Note:Without probing further, let us continue complying to adult rules to maintain sanity by switching on the Audio Player and listening to say a Sonu Nigam (or anyone better according to personal preference) when Himesh comes up on TV and switching off the TV when Emraan is found running behind a heroine. That’s definitely a better alternative than feeling more and more disgusted and irritated for things of no consequences. J