CATCHER IN THE RYE

The cover is godly

They need to cycle it out of the American education system, really. While it is a nice book, it is not something that should've been added to the english "mandatory reads" system for this many years.

It's not a historial cornerstone or a foundation of literature as many nostalgic baby boomers like to praise it as.

Not getting anti-intellectual or anything, its just a nice book to pick up at the library, but that's about it.

>>8954366
Really? I think CITR is a great book for school curriculums, and I'm someone who just got out of one

It's just a good book to read in high school, easy to teach and has themes that adolescents will be able to relate to and project their own meaning onto.

What would be a better choice?

>>8954383
There is Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger, The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck and recently, Black Swan Green by Dave Michell. A lot of them have the same themes but carry them over in a more direct way, and are able to be discussed in different grade levels without the need for saturation or "watering down" as many curriculums have had to do with CITR in other less-intelligent states (North Carolina and Texas being examples, with the whole fake controversy about themes in the book.)

>>8954366
>>8954383
>>8954405
You are all plebs, who can't understand the beauty and complexity of this book

>>8954413
Oh man, if you could work as good as you post unfunny garbage, maybe you wouldn't be unpublished still.

it's readable for simple folk, yet it still has integrity. this makes it suitable for the classroom.

>>8954355
The part where he rapes his sister.

>>8954366
I desagree: many movies and books today contain elements similar to this one and after learning CITR, the connection and analysis of similarities can really help developing sense out of more difficult texts.

Enjoyable book, but it's not the end of literature or anything. The age when you read it seems to matter a lot. I read it when I was 17 and it really clicked with me. I see someone older getting turned off by it.

It's angsty teenage themes and low-hanging symbolism make it a suitable book for high school English. It's depiction of paralysis and isolation are comparable to Hamlet. What makes a great work isn't it's complexity or it's inaccessibility...

>>8954355
It all comes down to when you read it, like >>8954453
I read it at age 20 and I really got it. A 16-year-old would just think Holden is a whiny bitch

>>8954574
It's great in its reflection of the teenage existence and, reading it as an adult, demonstrates that the problems we have faced as teenagers tend to crop up again and again. When you read about Holden's problems in the book, you're just reading about your current problems watered down into something simpler and younger. What most people are reading as youth and naivety is great; we were all young once. We are quick to dismiss Holden as annoying, until we remember we were all like that once, and somehow we continue to make similar mistakes.

>>8954607
And what I feel makes the ending so perfect is that Holden makes this realization himself.

I read it as a teenager, it was aright; I just remember my man Stradlater giving bitches the time

>>8954628
Exactly. It's a great book in that it sets forth the argument, shows it throughout, and finally acknowledges its own hypothesis.

>>8954355
you can fucking google what books mean nowadays and somehow you're still perpetuating the basic bitch interpretation of this novel. stop posting here

i didnt care for it. it insists upon itself

>>8954645
write something worth reading or do something worth writing, faggot

>>8954647
oh? in what way was it insistent?

>>8954366
desu I teach english in Asia and I assigned it to my class

I read it exactly two years ago, out of morbid curiosity for the john lennon incident (i actually wanted to do this since i was 14 when i learned about it)

I hated Holden. At the same time, was aware that had i read it earlier i would have identified with him. And that if i ever have a son id make him read it at fifteen or so

>>8954355
Hilariously the only reason I clicked on lit was to ask this very question, however the opposite, I genuinely enjoyed it, this was defining moment of my life reading this as a senior in high school who was seriously failing at life.

Of course I have no idea if it's actually good by literary standards.

>>8954448
that part was meh and predictable sempai

>>8954405
>David Michell
fucking dropped he's the ultimate pleb author who tries to act deep

>>8954405
At my school at least, we read some of Nine Stories after we finished CITR. Perfect Day for Banana Fish and a couple others. But my teacher was a big Salinger fan I think.

David Mitchell is not that good though. I mean, he's not horrible, but he walks the line between genre fiction and literature fiction. In the classroom, I think it's important to avoid genre fiction entirely, kids get enough of that already

I haven't read Grapes of Wrath, but it would probably be an okay alternative