Catcher in the Rye

I just finished Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. This book was first published in 1945, my edition was from 1999, publishing company Little Brown and Company. J.D. Salinger had several characteristics that make the character Holden Caufield similar to him, in that he did not like the structure of the school life. More information about Mr. Salinger can be found in World Biography online. He lived in NEw York, attended school, was in the service, was a writer and got out of service in 1945. Catcher in the Rye is about a boy named Holden Caufield, he is still in High School but has been farmed out to several schools because though he likes English and writing he just cannot apply himself to the rigorous studying of other subjects. He does not seem to like anyone, using names to describe them as phonies, flits, and other deragatory names. He is not happy with his older brother because he writes movies and he Holden thinks all movie people are phonies, who do not know how to be real. He loved his younger brother who dies at a young age and sends Holden into a tailspin. He loves his younger sister Phoebe and spends his time after bailing out on his school Pency, a few days before school ends for winter break. Well, he was actually kicked out but that was not in effect until after winter break. So Holden bails after an argument with his roommate about a girl that his roommate took out who is actually a friend of Holden's from home. He ends up getting knocked out, and then he leaves, goes on a calling binge and for a high school student a drinking binge. Calling friends or should I say aquintances as holden does not consider anyone a friend. The whole time he is doing this you are constantly hearing his thoughts, mostly all negative, unless he is reminiscing about his brother or thinking about his sister. His one drinking "buddy", who is actually someone who graduated from another school Holden was kicked out of, tells him he should see a psychoanalyst. This book is full of teenage angst and unresolved issues with the death of his brother. I think that is his brother who he felt was perfect had not died Holden might not have had such animosity towards the people who fell short of his expectations. But then again do not all teenagers feel animosity towards others. Good book, pretty current with todays issues.

Books up next

I have just finished a book for book club Gone Girl. This is a psychological thriller that had me guessing what the final outcome would be. There wer some who wanted both characters to have a murder/ suicide just because the Amy and Nick will never have a happy marriage, they will always be constantly watching each other. The combination, like Nick's sister Go is explosive and not in a good way. Many twists and turns and makes you look at your own marriage. It is positively scary that this type of person has a relationship with anyone. I recommend you read it but it is not part of my Reading the 100 list. On that list, however is Catcher in the Rye, but as I said in a previous blog the book The Golden NotebookI will probabky not read yet. I had to take it back to the library today, but will pick it up the next time I go to the library. I have several of the books on Reading the 100 challenge at my home so I will read those first before heading back to the library. MY next non-hundred book will be decided later as I have to decide from several books that I promised myself that I would read.

Main Street complete

I have finished Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. Yeah me. It actually a pretty good book. I guess the best thing it did was present a picture of a small midwest town set around 1916-1920. The people who reviewed the book said that Sinclair Lewis probably started writing this book when he got out of college and finished it when he was older.

I guess this is in reference to the central character Carol who was an idealist. She got out of college ready to change the world, took a library job to change the minds of youth about the value of an education. Was quite bored. She said she would not marry until she reached her goal. Her original goal ws to change a small town into something wonderful. But she changed her mind several times, but keot that in the background. Then she meets Dr. Kennicot, who lives in just the small town she wants to change. The kicker here is that she wanted to change a small town was not happy with the small town she was living in. So here is a potential town to change and she starts off alienatiing everyone. Her husband is none to pleased with her attitude towards the town folk.

The marriage is not working out but how can it when she has no interest what so ever in her husbands interest, not even one thing. She does go through periods of respect for him but those do not last very long. The other thing that she tends to throw over is her desire to make a difference in the town. Instead of sticking to her guns, she drops projects. Her biggest project that she works on all the time is how to escape her husband and this town. Every man that comes into town she pictures a romantic liason. Will he whisk her away? Will she make a difference in his life? She is not a happy person. We get to hear her thoughts quite a bit and I think she could use a little shrink help.

But to be fair, the women are not very accepting of her. Probably because she thinks that they are all stupid. Carol tends to step on toes. She does not try to fit in because she does not like theses women. They are slightly annoying. They believe that they are above everyone But they have been running the town for quite sometime. We also have the small town affairs, the bullies, the busybodies, and just about anyone that you could possibly think was annoying.

She does have children and the end scene was actually kind of interesting because of the reference she made to the year 2000. The descriptions that Sinclair used were very for a better term descriptive. The winter scenes made you think, boy I could use a blanket. The houses were nicely described and I paid close attention to the fact that Carol did inot really like the bungalow style. I thought this was interesting because that was a style that came into being about that time. I would have thought it was a forward thinking idea, but she wanted columns and other over the top decor. She did not appreciate the quiet or simpler things to life.

I said I would compare this to two other books I read: The Secret Lives of Dresses and The Lifeboat. In all three books the central character is a young female. Two of the books are set in the 1920 eara and one is curent day. The women in the 1920's are looking to be strong and independent, with the aid of a man in thier lives. The woman in the The Secret Lives of Dresses is trying to figure out whaere she belongs. She too loks for the strenght of a man. But she is independent and goes for what she wants with some prompting. It is okay for her to be strong, not like in the 1920's where you were expected to get married. The other two woman found some independence from their husbands but you have to say that they were still relient. The girl in the book The Lifeboat, would not have been on the lifeboat if not for her husband cutting a deal. Though unlike Carol, she went after her gentleman because she knew he had money. This was after seeing him in the betrothel section of the paper, thereby destroying a realtionship. When she was in the lifeboat she went with the power, at first a man then the women. She also had to deal with stronger, older women, but she just let her lawyer help her out of a sticky situation.
Carol on the other hand used her husband to get where she thought she wanted to go. Then she leaves him but with his blessing and money to go to DC, towards the end of the book. She would have not been able to do any of that without his help at that time. But she did not really appreciate what he did for her, even to the end of the book. The girl for The Secret Lives of Dresses, stood on her own, had to deal with an Aunt, Uncle and cousin who wanted to strip her of her grandmother's store, but she stood her ground, and with the help of friends, one being a possible boyfriend, she was able to take back the store and find her nitch in life. The other two I do not think will ever be as successful, but that unfortunately was the sign of the times in the early 1900's. Three woman, thrown into making life decisions, some successful, some not.

All I know is that I fall somewhere in between, and I think that is where most of us fall. When I graduated from college I had all sorts of ideals. I was going to find the cure for cancer, I had a plan for when I would get married, when I would have kids and when I would win the Nobel Peace Prize. So I got married, had my kids in the exact time frame that I wanted. It all fell into place, the only thing I have not done is to cure cancer, though I did have cancer and I feel cured. I did not win the Nobel Peace Prize. There will always be people who say no, tell us what to do, think our plans are crazy, but all you need is the support of one person to make you feel invincible. Sure you should feel that way all the time, but we all no that that does not always happen. Having someone in youor corner whether male or female just makes life a little easier. The sufferagets found this to be true that is why they formed an organization, so they would not stand alone. All these women needed a support group, some got it others did not. Great story, really made me think.

Almost done

I am almost finished Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. I lost it and finally realized the last time that I had read it was while in bed. Apparently, in my sleep I knocked it off the table and forgot where it was. But today is cleaning day and I looked under my bed, heavens, and there it was still with the bookmark in place thankfully.

I do want to make a comment about the book. I have lived in DC and Norfolk, VA and thought those were large places, similar to this stories heroine, Carol Kennicott in her town of St. Paul, Minnesota. When my husband finished hi s obligation to the services we moved to a small town. I feel for this character who finds herself under the microscope of all the people in town. In DC or Norfolk, you can go everywhere without running into someone you know, just like our character states in her circumstances for moving from St. PAul to a small prairie town. In my small town, my husband was wearing sweats when he went to the store and ran into several people who asked if he was feeling okay. Everwhere we go we run into someone accessing us and this is what happens in this book.

But in the same token, Carol, has judged these people as being inadequate because they are not like big city folk. This is what she wanted to do was to change a small town into a large town, to redesign the city. I am not sure what she thought she would have to do to do this but there are many lessons in this book.