Xeniya Psovaya Psovaya itibaren Punta de Cartas, Cuba
Browsing through other reviews of this book, I can't believe so many people gloss over the point of Catcher - namely, that it's a book about grief. Sure, Holden is an irritating adolescent, and all of that (there's my first unconscious Caulfieldism of the day), but he's also in mourning. And it's not like it's a hidden subtext - within the first thirty pages, he's mentioned the death of Allie, which comes up again and again. Holden's mother is certainly disappointed with him, but since Allie's death she's "up all night smoking cigarettes" anyway. At his lowest moments, it's Allie that Holden speaks to. His brother's death - and the fact he, inferior as he thinks himself to be, survived - is the real reason for his great unhappiness. The most important character in the book never makes an appearance. As much as CITR does have universal adolescent appeal, I've never thought that it was about being young so much as it was about loss of a very specific and personal type.