I was probably a couple of years younger than Holden’s 17 when I first read ‘Catcher.’ Now I’m 25 years older than he was (is). It’s been a very long time since I’ve reread the book, 10 years or so. But I’m finding I remember much of it more than most of the books I’ve read in the past year.
Not all of it, though, including what the actual experience of reading it is like. I apparently forgot how flat out funny it is. Take Holden’s description of why he liked the headmaster’s daughter: “… she didn’t give you a lot of horse manure about what a great guy her father was. She probably knew what a phony slob he was.”
I can’t help but like that kid.
Of course, that word “phony” coming out of Holden is something I remember very well. It’s only a page and a half into the book that Holden’s biggest gripe with the world first surfaces when he offers his perspective on his school’s claim of “ … molding boys into splendid, clear-thinking young men.”
“Strictly for the birds,” he says.
Another thing I forgot was Holden’s physical characteristics — almost 6-foot-3 with gray hair. That surprised me the first time I read it — only a few pages in, I’d had him pegged differently — and it’s jarred me each time since. In my mind’s eye, Holden is a relatively small, wiry guy, and that’s not going to change.
One of my favorite moments so far, and one that I do remember, is Holden standing on the hill, above the football game, trying to feel a sufficient goodbye from the school. I do remember first reading that, and a gong going off in my head. I’d often had the bewildering experience of knowing what my emotions were “supposed” to be in a given situation and wondering what the heck was wrong with me for not feeling them. It was my first real feeling of connection to Holden, and the moment still resonated with me all these years later, although I’ve gained some perspective with age.
I’m only 25 pages or so into the book, and there have already been so many moments. Another is when Ackley, the kid who lives in the next dorm room, comes into Holden’s room and bugs the hell out of him:
“I sneaked a look to see what he was fiddling around with on my chiffonier. He was looking at this picture of this girl I used to go around with … He must have picked up that goddam picture and looked at it at least five thousand times since I got it. He always put it back in the wrong place, too, when he finished. He did it on purpose. You could tell.”
A lesser writer would have Ackley bug Holden by always saying something annoying when looking at the picture. Having him always put it back in the wrong place says so much more about him and makes that scene so much more immediate and real. It’s the difference between merely understanding why Holden is annoyed and actually experiencing the emotion with him. When writers do things like that it just blows me away.
At other times, the writing becomes a victim of its own success, the voice and style having been so heavily imitated for so long. It’s like watching ‘Casablanca,’ in which so many lines have been repeated so often they’ve become clichés. You have to remind yourself at times that they weren’t clichés then.
But for the most part, the writing still feels incredibly fresh. I thought going in that the joy of rereading ‘Catcher’ after all this time would be mostly nostalgic. But, so far, that hasn’t been the case. I’m enjoying it for itself and my current interaction with it, not just memories of how it affected me in the past. And that’s a pretty great thing.
