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Disappointing. At times I wondered if I even read the same book as everybody else. This book is a "scathingly satirical masterpeice with a rebellious streak"? Yeah Holden calling every guy in sight a phony; that's really sockin' it to the man. It's a decent (sometimes funny) book with a hopeless romantic in the lead that's aged pretty well. But if you're expecting a classic satire that skewers mid century society narrated by a rebellious teenager (I was) then you'll be just as disappointed. Here's a run down of how each quarter of the book played for me:
First Quarter-the prep school: very funny and accurate, almost perfect. A-
Second Quarter: The book slows down the second he leaves the prep school and never really recovers. high note: Holden's thoughts about the military guy. B
Third Quarter: Rebounds a little. Mostly because of Holden's date with Sally (I know a girl that's almost a mirror image of her), and (minor spoiler) when he called Sally a pain in the ass I felt like cheering, I think I did infact. B+
The next part has some spoilers you might want to skip, although it might make you less disappointed to find it out now than when you read the book.
Fourth Quarter: What the hell happened? Every bit of momentum this book had (which isn't a whole lot) at this point was gone every time he was with his little sister. If this had been a movie I would have fast forwarded. And I think anything could've been better than what J.D. Salinger chose for the ending, which was nothing. He didn't call Jane, he didn't tell us about his dad (I was really curious), he didn't confront his possibly gay English teacher, he didn't contact Sally, or let us see how his mother took the news of his expulsion, he didn't ask Stradlater if he "gave Jane the time", he didn't even tell us what happened to him in the annoyingly vague final chapter. God what a waste! And don't write about how any of those things would have been a typical ending and how it's better to end it this way, because it's not. It's unsatisfying and if the book wasn't so beloved it would be viewed as a cop out.
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