Catcher in the Rye

Summary: "Repetitive, indecent, often very funny, it is wonderfully sustained by the author, who achieves all those ancient effects to be got from a hero who is in some ways inferior, and in some ways superior, to the reader....Why, then, with all this to admire, do I find something phoney in the book itself?...[T]he adult view of adolescence, insinuated by skilful faking, is agreeable to predictable public taste....[It] is w...hat the consumer needs....The boy's attitudes to religion, authority, art, sex and so on are what smart people would like other people to have, but cannot have themselves, because of their superior understanding." [read more]