The Catcher in the Rye

Anyone who has read J.D. Salinger's New Yorkerstories—particularly A Perfect Day for Bananafish, Uncle Wiggily inConnecticut, The Laughing Man, and For Esme—With Love and Squalor,will not be surprised by the fact that his first novel is fully ofchildren. The hero-narrator of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE is an ancientchild of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield.Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhandde*ion, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goesunderground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is atonce too simple and too complex for us to make any final commentabout him or his story.

Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he wasborn in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but,almost, hopelessly impaled on it. There are many voices in thisnovel: children's voices, adult voices, underground voices-butHolden's voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his ownvernacular, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues aperfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, likemost lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keepsmost of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away,or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader whocan handle it to keep.