So I said I was going to read The Bell Jar first. However I recently started grad school and have been very busy reading YA book after Ya book for one of my classes. One of our assigned readings was The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. So at least I can cross that one off my list!!
I really thought I was going to enjoy this book. As a teenager I was rebellious like Holden Caulfield, not to the extent as he was but still it was there.
First lets talk about the plot. Holden gets kicked out of his 4th prep school for awful grades. He gets into a fight with his roommate and leaves to go wander around NYC for the weekend or however long. ( this is all I literally got out of this book)
I enjoyed the beginning while Holden was at the prep school. I enjoyed his interactions with his teacher ( his history teacher i believe?) I also enjoyed the chapters where he interacts with his roommates and suitemates. It reminded me of the book Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld Which I loved and have lost count of how many times I've read it.
But then he leaves to go bum around NYC and it just rambles. He came across to me as a whiny spoiled rich kid. He had no sense of how much of his parents money he was wasting by getting kicked out of all these different schools. I eventually found him to be very annoying, and couldn't wait to actually finish the book and throw it across the room I was so annoyed. I do find it interesting that his sister Phoebe seemed more mature and down to earth than Holden!!
And lets take a minute to discuss his language !! OMG I don't think there was one page free of swearing. No wonder this book is challenged and banned so often !
So my overall rating of this book? 1 out of 5. Mainly because I enjoyed the beginning and the parts with his sister. But also because I found the rest boring and the language irritated me.
