I spent about two weeks reading it, and while I appreciated the prose, which was conversational and easy to digest, I can't say that I enjoyed the book itself all that much. I found Holden Caulfield to be very insufferable, since he spent the whole book whining and complaining about everything and everyone he came across. In his eyes, everyone is a phony, and everything makes him angry and depressed. I know those who've read it say that this could have be a sign of unresolved trauma and depression from the loss of his little brother and a few other things that you learn later on. But it still doesn't make it any less annoying to read. I'm not sure whether it was Salinger's point to write a novel from the perspective of a realistic teen/college-aged boy (i.e. angsty and moody), or if it was Salinger's own opinions on certain things (like Hollywood and society in general) bleeding through, into his main protagonist. Maybe a little bit of both. But it got old pretty quickly. Overall, my feelings on the novel are mixed and I don't see myself reading it again.
On a sidenote, I'm about 22 Chapters into The Urth of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. I read the original quartet of books (the Book of the New Sun), and while the books are held in high regard by many sci-fi fantasy authors, I can't say that I like them. They're ambitious, but the prose is somehow overwritten and vague at the same time, and it's hard to even tell what you're supposed to be imagining, or even what's going on in the plot. I know the ambiguity is intentional, and partly what drives the story, but I can't say that it makes for an engaging read. For me, it makes me feel detached from the story, and it's characters (who speak in a stilted, and very cryptic manner throughout). I appreciate it's ambition and it's originality, but ultimately? Not for me.
(Note: Normally I would include this in the weekly megathread, but I did not see it on the front page, so I'm putting it here).
by Redditer51
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