4. Classic novel No 1 - The Catcher in the Rye
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is why I chose to read this book now, and where I got it, and why I hadn't read it before, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it.
I'd had this book by old Salinger lying around for about a thousand years and I thought it was about time I read it. I mean because I liked the other one that old Salinger did - Franny and Zooey, I was crazy about that book, old Franny, old Zooey - I just felt I'd like this one too.
There's a reason people read this book in their teens.
If you want to know the truth I was just waiting for something interesting to happen or a swell character to come along, some great universal truth to be expounded in a classic piece of writing. But they never did.
It's nice and all - I'm not saying that - but it's also irritating as hell. Pretty soon it became clear that old Caulfield was just another typical teenage boy, with the biggest problems in the world and misunderstood by everyone. I read it anyway though.
But old Caulfield would just go on about how much he smoked and how much he drank and how he didn't really like these swell girls even though they were okay to horse around and get sexy with. He thought he was a man of the world but old Caulfield was just another nervous adolescent. All mouth and no trousers. That damn near killed me, I swear to God.
And don't even mention the movies. Old Caulfield spent so much time complaining about the movies. I hardly ever liked it when he did. Except this one bit when he was talking about newsreels.
"Newsreels. Christ almighty. There's always a dumb horse race, and some dame breaking a bottle over a ship, and a chimpanzee riding a goddam bicycle with pants on."
That killed me, it really did.
I'd had this book by old Salinger lying around for about a thousand years and I thought it was about time I read it. I mean because I liked the other one that old Salinger did - Franny and Zooey, I was crazy about that book, old Franny, old Zooey - I just felt I'd like this one too.
There's a reason people read this book in their teens.
If you want to know the truth I was just waiting for something interesting to happen or a swell character to come along, some great universal truth to be expounded in a classic piece of writing. But they never did.
It's nice and all - I'm not saying that - but it's also irritating as hell. Pretty soon it became clear that old Caulfield was just another typical teenage boy, with the biggest problems in the world and misunderstood by everyone. I read it anyway though.
But old Caulfield would just go on about how much he smoked and how much he drank and how he didn't really like these swell girls even though they were okay to horse around and get sexy with. He thought he was a man of the world but old Caulfield was just another nervous adolescent. All mouth and no trousers. That damn near killed me, I swear to God.
And don't even mention the movies. Old Caulfield spent so much time complaining about the movies. I hardly ever liked it when he did. Except this one bit when he was talking about newsreels.
"Newsreels. Christ almighty. There's always a dumb horse race, and some dame breaking a bottle over a ship, and a chimpanzee riding a goddam bicycle with pants on."
That killed me, it really did.
posted by Ben at 5:08 PM
2 Comments:
Bravo! Very nicely done--I laughed out loud reading this review (having read the book as a teen and not been impressed with it even then).
A friend of mine read this when she was 24 and summed it up beautifully: "It's about a rich bastard with his ego in his hat." I'm not even sure I know what that means, but, like yours, it made me laugh.
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