The Catcher In The Rye...

[naomi24]

...by J D Salinger, a book somehow missed from my 'should do' list as a student and only recently read - and what an extraordinary little book it is. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone - it really isn't everyone's cup of tea - but for me it was a real page-turner. The language alone fascinated me. It has now been added to my collection of 'favourites'.

Does anyone have any thoughts about it?

[naomi24]

steg, I confess I had to look 'braw' up... best answer to you. The book, in my opinion, is unique.

[pastafreak]

I didn't read Wuthering Heights until maybe 6-7 years ago...why did it take me so long? I absolutely loved it. Another little known Charlotte Bronte work that stayed with me for a very long time is Villette...said to be autobiographical, and to me at the time...incredibly romantic. I'd like to read it again.

[naomi24]

‘Villette’ - Charlotte’s unrequited love. Have you read ‘The Professor’, Pasta, Charlotte’s first book - unpublished in her lifetime?

My favourite from her is Jane Eyre - a book I’ve read countless times and can still pick up and read from any point. It also contains what I think is the most passionate episode in all of literature.

[pastafreak]

I've not yet read The Professor...I seem to recall reading that Villette built on it.
I think I'm due a Charlotte Bronte binge...

[DTCwordfan]

For pure descriptive prose, turn to Mr Hemingway....

My favourite 'complex' book when young was Herman Hesse's 'The Glass Bead Game' - a brilliant and sudden ending which I won't give away here.

[10ClarionSt]

It's always had great reviews, as far as I can recall but I've never read it. I can't read any book. I get bored after a few pages.

[eleanor2]

I love audiobooks, in particular Ruth Goodman.

[naomi24]

DTC, 'The Catcher' in the Rye could never be described as 'complex'. Quite the opposite - although students of psychology might find the psyche of the narrator something to examine.

[dance2trance]

It was OK in its day (but like Moby Dick or the novels of Proust) it is one of the things NYC intellectuals like to chatter about and which empty headed English language teachers like to throw at kids to be current - albeit with the 1950s in the USA. It is written in a NYC vernacular which is alien to the English.

[ichkeria]

I’ll give it a go. Thanks Naomi.
I’m still puzzled by the impression given above that Jane Austen wrote David Copperfield

[pastafreak]

Aren't most books of the past written in language incomprehensible to current generations?