"The Catcher in the Rye": High School Copy

This is the copy I had in high school. Like most kids in high school in America during my time there, this book isn't done justice. Not because of the teachers, but because American kids just aren't experienced enough or sophisticated enough to get it. Freshmen? You can't really expect kids who can't drive to understand and feel this masterpiece.

I remember a Christmas being back fresh from the dorms or the sleazy apartment where I was living and being totally wasted and in an argument with my Auntie, who adored this book. I was trashing it, partly because I never fully got it when I had mostly skimmed it as a freshman years before. Another motivator for this confrontation was the fact that I am the oldest of our little foursome of cousins, and I wanted to show them that it's okay to disagree with your parents, that iconoclastic fights are sometimes necessary for growth.

Years later, while living in Brooklyn, this book became another subway novel, and I realized how amazing it is, and even contacted my Auntie and, having had the requisite life experiences that led to the above realization (about iconoclasm), relayed the gist of that realization to her.

She was gracious and said that everyone has their own tastes, and sometimes those tastes change, and there's nothing wrong with that.