Vicky Turner

I don't understand why anyone would give this book a 'negative' review - although of course everyone is entitled to the way they see things, and I appreciate that. It was written in 1951, and to me seems to address some of the poignant issues of the times. Lonely children who were sent away to school and missed their families, the way that certain things were not discussed (such as a death in the family which had a massive impact on family members and children being abused to name but a couple), distance between children and their parents and how young people were easily misguided and lacked direction. There was a depression and a sense of disconnection if one didn't slot nicely into society's mould - which Salinger and others of the Beat Generation of late 40's and 50's America: poets, writers and philosophers, were speaking about. Questioning the narrative they had been served up on platters by their culture of ivy league college, white picket fences, a Job at the Firm, wife at home drinking cocktails and smoking cigarettes, with kids, etc. Holden is just this kid and he is confused about life, deep down he has a good heart but he is at odds with himself, fighting with himself - and then at the end he ends up in hospital being psycholanalysed and no doubt prescribed some form of medication for mental illness (assumption!) I am 51 and I only just read this book and I am happy I waited until now so I could appreciate some of the deeper aspects which I may have missed had I read it in my younger years looking for a plot or some kind of fictional storyline. To me it reads as part fiction, part fact and it's like studying some piece of art from an era long since past and seeing a reflection of the times portrayed by someone who was firmly rooted in them.