****
Intelligient, perceptive, and well-voiced tale told by and about an alienated and undisciplined 17-year-old boy whose social and academic failures are a complete mystery to himself. The kid, Holden Caulfield, isn't always wrong in his antisocial observations (that is, he's rarely entirely wrong), which makes the book that much more readable, but may make it of questionable value to younger readers who may find in it more validation for similar views than cause for concern. Absolutely on the mark, though; so much so that the setting -- Pennsylvania and New York in the early 50s -- is almost irrelevant. Written with verve and humor, and, concerning Holden, not entirely depressing.
Intelligient, perceptive, and well-voiced tale told by and about an alienated and undisciplined 17-year-old boy whose social and academic failures are a complete mystery to himself. The kid, Holden Caulfield, isn't always wrong in his antisocial observations (that is, he's rarely entirely wrong), which makes the book that much more readable, but may make it of questionable value to younger readers who may find in it more validation for similar views than cause for concern. Absolutely on the mark, though; so much so that the setting -- Pennsylvania and New York in the early 50s -- is almost irrelevant. Written with verve and humor, and, concerning Holden, not entirely depressing.