The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Some interesting facts about J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" : 
Mark David Chapman, the man who shot John Lennon, was reading a copy of "The Catcher in the Rye" when he was arrested. He said in his police statement that the larger part of his personality was Holden Caulfied , while the smaller part of his personality was Satan.

Police found a copy of the novel in John Hinckley Jr's apartment after he shot Ronald Reagan in 1981. Hinckley said he shot Reagan to impress actress Jodie Foster, whom he'd been stalking.

In 1989, Robert John Bardo stalked and murdered actress Rebecca Schaeffer at her home. He was carrying a copy of the book when he was arrested.

That is the only interesting thing about this book. Apparently murderers enjoy it. Should I feel relieved then, that I hate this book with every fiber of my being? From the very first sentence, in the very first chapter I knew how my feelings would be on this book. I will be honest in my review and say that I did not make it past the ninety page mark. I felt that I gave it more then a fair chance. There are too many good books out there to waste your time reading one that you despise. The writing ... was J.D. Salinger even a real author? How did this book get published let alone become a well known classic? The writing was just bloody awful, it made me cringe. I read classics to avoid this kind of writing ... this is like a cruel joke. Let's set aside the writing and focus on the story line for a minute ... oh wait, there isn't one! For the ninety pages that I did read, nothing happened. I'm used to slow paced books, but in ninety pages we didn't even get through one crumbly night of Holden's crumbly life (did I mention that the same phrases keep popping up over, and over, and over again!). I dislike Holden very much so. He is perverted and foul mouthed. Maybe he has some redeeming qualities further on in the book but I didn't care enough to find out. All of the characters in this book are as flat as the paper that they were written on. That aside, I couldn't stomach all of the vulgar language and sexual content. For instance, did you know that "Goddamn" is used exactly 245 times in this book?
This book is not going back on the shelf. I'm going to sell it and use the money to buy a real classic.

My rating :  *