The Catcher in the Rye

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The hero-narrator is a sixteen-year-old native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. He leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and spends three days underground in New York City. Holden is both simple and complex, making it difficult to draw final conclusions about him or his story. He is deeply attracted to beauty, almost hopelessly so. The novel features various voices—children's, adults', and underground—but Holden's voice stands out as the most eloquent. He expresses a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure, keeping much of the pain to himself while sharing the pleasure with others. This emotional depth is available for readers who can appreciate it. J.D. Salinger's classic tale of teenage angst and rebellion was first published in 1951. It has been recognized on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923 and named by Modern Library as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. The book has faced challenges for its use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality, becoming a must-read for teenage boys in the 1950s and 60s.