I'm so glad I didn't read this in high school. I got very little from any of the books that I was forced to read and this would have been a horrible one to miss. It is quite similar in many ways to Mordecai Richler's Appreticeship of Duddy Kravitz but differs in a number of ways. The foremost similarity is that both have a very low estimation of human life and a somewhat pessimistic tone while trying to show that while everyone feels their life is hard, if you look at it from the outside, its really not that bad. The difference I would say is the Duddy is an ass and I didn't like him and am not surprised in the slightest that he has a hard time with life, whereas with Holden, the protagonist of Catcher, is a smart and thoroughly good character who is simply caught in the cycle of teen depression and angst. Not that that makes it any less valid, in fact as a stereotype, it gains power in that everyone goes through it. Of course everyone goes through teen aged years differently but they all have a hard time, even the popular kids have their own problems.
Read it and be a better person because of it.
6 fields out of 7
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