The Catcher In The Rye

Why do I hate this book? I have had many arguments over J.D. Salinger's infamous novel. I read it when I was about fifteen years old, picking it off the shelf in ASDA for only £4. I picked it up not because I had read much about it - and definitely not because of the front cover - but because I had heard it was a classic, a book you should read. So, naturally, I did. The story of Holden Caulfield being a whiny, self-deluded youth didn't appeal to me in the least. I kept telling myself I had to like it, that others had loved it, hell, it played a huge part in John Lennon's death but as I turned the pages I didn't feel anything for the book, the words or the character of Holden.

A few years later I walked into Waterstones in Cardiff and right in front of me was a novel called The Suicide Club by Rhys Thomas. I saw the front cover, was intrigued, picked it up and read the blurb. Then I bought it. Then I went home and spent a week devouring each word. It immediately became one of my favourite books. Years later I handed it over to my roommate, Dom, and told him to read it. He got through a hundred pages or so and said that he couldn't read it, that he found it a bit young for him, that he wasn't in the right mind set to read and enjoy. This got me thinking.                                                                                                                                                                                        

                


My other roommate, Joe, calls The Cather in the Rye one of his favourite books. What Catcher and Suicide have in common is that they're both coming-of-age stories, Surely, therefore, it matters only to the reader about what mindset they're in. I love The Suicide Club but it captures the essence of adolescence - not all of it, of course - but a lot of it screams "this is what teenagers get up to." There's a wonderful section in which the narrator recalls the time he lost his virginity but he doesn't talk about it in crude detail, he merely mentions it and tells us it's none of our business.  


I think all of us have the one book that is our coming-of-age novel. For a lot of people it's The Catcher in the Rye, Holden's story but for others it's To Kill a Mockingbird or Harry Potter or, in my case, the wonderful The Suicide Club. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter which novel is your favourite or which one you will always cherish and keep a copy of. Just because I've read Crime and Punishment doesn't make me a well-read person or a better reader. A well-read person is someone who has read a lot and, therefore, has opinions. The Catcher in the Rye was not for me and for others The Suicide Club may not be either but, in the end, you have to find that one book that will change your reading and your life forever.