Ethan Carson

Bro awful. I really try to be appreciative of art because I know how much it means to people, but I just hated this book in every aspect, and I would really like to know why it's so critically acclaimed. Alright here comes my rant, I'm very sorry if you're a fan of this book. I promise I'm usually a nice guy, but this just got on my nerves lol. I'm about to get really pretentious beware First off, literally more than half the book is filler. The plot is extremely loose and underdeveloped, and just about nothing that happens plays on later. It's so excruciatingly boring, and it's like it's written to be that way. Almost every page, the protagonist starts talking about someone he met in the past. It adds nothing to the plot, for example, the protagonist will just randomly start talking about how he used to know a guy who could whistle really well for like 3 paragraphs or so, it's just so uninteresting and uninspired. I don't know how J.D. Salinger managed to keep himself entertained writing this. No one cares about the specifics of what he ate for breakfast or something either, I don't know why it puts so much focus on details that don't matter. Secondly, it's not even well written, there's no sensory details or good flow to the sentinces. Usually the same word will be repeated so many times so close to eachother, it's hard to read. Just as an example, on page 125, the word 'Catholic' is used eight times within six sentinces. This happens a lot more often with people's names, because the book just avoids using pronouns for some reason, and it's super annoying. Third, Holden is basically the only character, and he's one of the most unlikeable characters I've ever seen. I know that it's intentionally so, but it gets on my nerves. Everyone else in the book is basically either a plot device, or just one more person for him to react to. No interesting dialogue ever goes on, and he barely has any chemistry with any one of these characters, with the exception of only a few, like his sister near the end. I guess cause they're all just phonies or something. And even if they're not phonies, they just have a boring conversation for like 2 pages before he moves on with his traveling. He focuses in on negative things about people that don't matter so much it's ridiculous. There will be full paragraphs of him talking about how gross he thinks somebody's pimples are or something. Who cares?? Why is that intersting to read about? Even if it's relateable to some people. That sort of thing is only mildly entertaining, and not even that when the punching bag is a fictional character. I'm not against being mean in a book for the sake comedy, it's not hurting any real people, but it was done so poorly here. Reading this book is basically just listening to the guy whine about things that don't matter and it's not entertaining. If I wanted to listen boring guy complain about how everyone else is so boring, I'd talk to any old dork at my high school. Tldr: the plot was very very uninteresting and sloppily written, there was crazy amounts of filler, and the main character is very not fun to listen to. I would like to hear why you guys like the book, since my opinions do change a lot. Sorry for being so overly negative, again, I usually try to see the positives in all forms of art. Maybe someone could help me see them a little clearer, that would be nice. But for now, I'm giving this a 2/10