By Megan Thomas
This “maybe these books are critically acclaimed for a reason” phase of mine is getting tiring – do you really mean to tell me the set works I refused to read are ALL good?! Well, luckily, I have unread copies of most of them, so I’ll just keep going…
I really did adore this, and perhaps it’s with adult hindsight that I can appreciate it as much as I did. Maybe it’s not quite right for people in the throes of adolescence? I have no doubt that Holden Caulfield would have refused to read it, too, and accused anyone who liked it as being phony. The way it captures teenage anxiety, self-consciousness paired with self-importance, and general confusion is so astute, even if Holden is at times an over-privileged, under-supervised little shit.
Set over the course of just a day, Salinger manages to pack in so much depth of character, from Holden’s evident trauma following the loss of his brother to his utter loathing of anything he deems to be “phony”. Is everything and everyone in his bougie private school and New York phony? Certainly from Holden’s perspective, and while a resistance to insincerity is completely normal, in Holden it seems to be more of a commentary on his inability to find any meaning in life. Then again, he’s a teenager, of course he’s not going to have it all figured out, but is that not adolescence in a nutshell? There being no plausible way for the world to make sense, but the indignant fury and insistence that it should?
From my perspective, criticism of the novel that I’ve seen has been, confusingly, the whole point and part of its charm. “Does nothing please Holden?!” – no, nothing, isn’t it outrageous and tragic, given his circumstances?! “There is so much swearing and rambling” – yes, constantly, it’s almost as if we’re in the unfiltered mind of a teenage boy who is angry with himself and the world for feeling excluded, right?! “Nothing of consequence happens!” – indeed, nothing at all, unless you include inner turmoil, and yet we emerge flustered, relieved, concerned but hopeful that everything will be okay. Despite not much happening, we care, because what is youth if not caring deeply about things that don’t really matter?
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