The Catcher in the Rye is not only a classic, it is a controversial classic. At some point, it was the most required and the most banished book in America’s classrooms. Published in 1941, it has sparked controversy among teachers of English literature and also among critics, who struggle to decide which genre this book belongs to. Is it a novel? Is it a memoir? Is it an autobiography? Is it something else altogether?
I read portions of it in my English class growing up in Romania and, of course, I read the plot online, but have never read it word for word. Its language, I really dislike. That’s probably why I have stayed away from it all these years. Plus, once you have solved your own adolescent angst, it is so hard to go through it all over again even vicariously. Continue reading