The Catcher in the Rye

Holden Caulfield was just expelled from yet another school over the Christmas season.

As he runs from the criminals at Pencey Prep, he pinballs about New York City in search of comfort in brief meetings. He has been known to shoot the bull with strangers in dive motels, walk Central Park by himself, be beat up by pimps, and get chopped down by ex-girlfriends. In all of its neon loneliness, sleazy glitter, and mixed feeling of promise and emptiness, the city is both beautiful and dreadful. Holden moves through it as if he were a ghost, never taking his little sister Phoebe for granted—she is the one person who really gets him—and his unwavering will to get away from the fakes and discover a meaningful existence.

An elegy to adolescent alienation, The Catcher in the Rye is a timeless masterpiece of coming-of-age fiction that perfectly captures the perplexing feeling of loss we experience as we leave childhood behind and the very human longing for connection.

First published in 1951, J.D. Salinger's (1919–2010) famous story of adolescent rebellion and anguish was written. Time's 2005 list of the top 100 English-language books published since 1923 included the book. It was selected as one of the top 100 English-language novels of the 20th century by Modern Library and its readers. Its liberal use of language and representation of sexuality have led to several legal challenges, yet throughout the 1950s and 1960s, it was the book that every adolescent guy wanted to read.