Author
J.D. Salinger

Title
The Catcher in the Rye

Publisher
The Penguin Group

Publication
1958

First publication
1951

Summary
The story begins with Holden's last night at Pencey, a boarding school he attended. He has been kicked out of school because he didn't have good marks. It's almost Christmas and he supposed to go home in for vacation on Wednesday. He decides to go a few days earlier to New York, where his parents live, but he doesn't go home. He doesn't want his parents to know he has been kicked out of school again, since it happened before. He takes the first train to New York and checks in at a hotel downtown. That night he goes to Ernie's, a nightclub. He has been there before with his Brother D.B. and he likes the place because he can get booze there, even though he's only 16 years old.   
At the club he dances the whole evening with a blond girl, but she's only interested in celebrities so he goes back to the hotel. At the hotel, the elevator-boy, named Maurice, says that he's a pimp and that he can arrange him a five-dollar whore. He takes the deal and a few minutes later the whore, named Sunny, arrives at his room. He was very excited because he thought that he could loose his virginity that night, but when she takes her sweater off, he realizes that he doesn't feel sexy or something so he sends her away after he paid her. She want's ten dollar instead of the five dollar he had arranged with the elevator-boy. He doesn't give her the ten dollars and a few minutes later she comes back with Maurice.

He still doesn't want to pay and Maurice punches him twice in the face. Holden starts to cry. He pays now. Sunny and Maurice leave and Holden goes to bed. The morning after he gives Sally, his formal girlfriend, a call and they go see a show at two 'o clock. They spend the whole afternoon together and after the show the go ice-skating. Later, in a bar, he tells her he wants to go to the woods with her and get a job so that they can marry each other. He was really serious. Sally didn't want to go and he called her a 'serious pain in the ass'. She really 'hit the ceiling' when he said that and she ran away. He felt lonely. He phoned an old friend of him to get a drink together that night.
They meet in some bar downtown. It isn't going well between them and after a while and some drinks Holden's friend, Carl Luce, leaves. Holden stays at the bar. He drinks a lot that night and he gets really drunk. When he's drunk, he calls Sally to apologize for his behavior that afternoon. He screws it up. She tells him he's really drunk and he really is. He goes to Central Park to go to the lake. He stays there for a while trying to find the ducks in the lake, but when he gets sober again, he goes to his parents house to sneak in and go to Phoebe, his ten year old sister. It seems that his parents aren't home and they talk a lot. He really likes Phoebe and she is very surprised to see him in the middle of the night.
Suddenly their parents come home and Holden hides in the closet. When his parents are in bed he leaves and goes to Mr. Antolini, a formal teacher from him who is a very good friend of Holden. Holden tells him the whole story. He may sleep there that night, but when Holden wakes ups, he sees Mister Antolini touching him so he gets out of his house as soon as possible. He goes to the station and stays there for the rest of the night. He decides to run away and he writes Phoebe a letter. It says that he will run away to the west and that she has to come to the park after school. He brings the note to her school. When she comes she is carrying suitcases with her; she wants to go with him. He tells her that is not possible and they got an argument. It causes him to let go of the idea and they make up. Holden will go home with Phoebe.

Perspective
The perspective in the book Holden Caulfield's.

Characters
The main character is Holden Caulfield. He's a sixteen-year old boy and just got kicked out of another Boarding School; Pencey. His father is a lawyer and he's pretty rich. Holden can mouth off to other people and that brings him in danger sometimes. He once got a punch from his roommate for calling him a moron all the time. He's afraid of people. He hates 'phonies' and people who have an attitude. Holden liked his younger brother, Allie, who died when Holden was a kid. He also swears a lot, using words like 'goddam and damn'. The minor characters are Ward Stratlater (a roommate at Pencey), Robert Ackley (also a roommate at Pencey), Jane Callagher (one of Holden's friends from the past), D.B. Caulfield (his brother), Phoebe Caulfield (his sister), Mr. Antolini (his teacher) and Sally Hayes (she used to be his girlfriend).

Time
The book has 192 pages. The told time is about four days. The book has no flashbacks, although Holden tells you about some things what happened in the past but you don't really witness them.

Space
The story takes place in New York City.

Excitement
I don't think the book was exciting or anything like that. It's a very realistic book. Usually I don't like realistic books too much, but this one is different. I kind of liked it.

Theme and motives
The theme of the book is how you can be honest and to go your own way and at the same time be useful in the 'adults-world', which isn't always fair and sincere. The theme is put in the book in the form of Holden Caulfield. He tries to act like an adult, but he can't stand the hypocrisy and the insincerity that he finds in the 'adults-world'. He's afraid to grow up and lose his innocence and honesty, but he realizes he can't be a kid for the rest of his life. This problem causes a crisis in his life.


Connection between title and theme
The title can be explained as this: Holden s to be the 'catcher in the rye' when he grows up. That means somebody who's catching playing kids when they fall of a cliff. The connection between the title and the theme is that Holden wants to rescue kids who will fall from their innocent 'kids-life' into the world of the adults.

Kind of book
The book is a (realistic) novel.

Opinion
I think the book is a very nice book because it is so realistic. You've been put into the mind of Holden, a boy who lives on the streets of New York for a few days. You get really into the book. I really like it. The language is American English and it's the language you hear in movies and American series a lot. It is easy to understand and I like it a lot.

Connection between other books
I think the main connection between this book and 'Lord of the Flies' and 'Cry, the beloved country' is, the realism which is in all of the three books I've read. I don't think that there are any other connections between this book and the other two books.

I didn't know what kind of novel it was when I borrowed it from the library so I can't say if my expectation has come true.