J. D. Salinger, author of The Catcher in the Rye, died this week at age 91, after decades of a reclusive life. I am sorry he died, and sorry that he was such a recluse. That he spoke his own lines and lived his own style is evident from the book, which I truly loved. I first read The Catcher in the Rye when I was sixteen, and reread it for perhaps the 20th time a few weeks ago. I am 70 years old now (didn't know that, didja?) and I can fairly say that Catcher played a significant role in my life. It even shaped the way I think and talk, I have to admit it.
As an author, I naturally ask what it is that makes a novel such a success. I believe Salinger sold 73 million copies of Catcher. Why is a book so loved? Thomas Mann says (in Death in Venice, another of my favorites) that it is sympathy. All of the other reasons are secondary. We love the main character of Catcher, feel for him, and care about him. We recognize all of his weaknesses and forgive them because we share them. Holden Caulfield speaks our thoughts and articulates our cynicism. We laugh and are grateful.
For me, one of the strengths of Catcher is its inventive details. Stradlater is a "secret slob," although attractive on the outside. Holden's brother, Allie, who died, had a baseball glove with poems written on it. Salinger even makes us care about his kid brother, and terribly sorry that he died. The girl next door, Jane Gallagher, always kept her checkers in the king's row. What a tender, sensitive symbol that is! And Holden hates Stradlater because he doesn't care whether or not Jane keeps her checkers in the king's row, or see why it is important. In fact Holden's world seems to divide into two groups, one of which has sensitive and tender introspection, and the rest of the insensitive louts that don't. For the caring ones, the greatest of crimes is to sell themselves as his older brother does. D.B, a writer, goes to Hollywood to "prostitute himself," and when Holden encounters an actual prostitute, she tells him she is from Hollywood. That's no accident.
If you haven't read The Catcher in the Rye (and some of his other books and stories), I hope you will. Remember, it was published in 1945, and every time money is mentioned you should mentally multiply the sum by twenty.
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