The Catcher In The Rye

A few days ago I finished reading Salinger's masterpiece... The Catcher in the rye.

I had to come to Barcelona to be able to read this book, cause thanks to nut cases like Mark David Chapman, or John Hinckley Jr., in the States you will be marked if you try to buy a copy, and you are not a high school student or teacher, if you are able to find a copy available anyway!... As if the book didn't had enough bad publicity already without the extras!

But forget about that for a moment. If you haven't read it yet, you ought to read it, and the sooner the better! It is simply a wonderful reading, cursing and all!

To much dismay of its detractors, I have to say that the cursing is unavoidable. Or is it that no one ever uses words like 'bastard' or 'goddamn'? C'mon! be reasonable! No one I've ever met in my life goes through the day without using at least a few cursing words! I dunno what would I do if I couldn't!

Another thing I found out while reading the book was its humor. Yes, I said humor! The book it's full of it! People on the bus and in the subway gave me strange looks just because I burst into laughs every couple of pages!

And one more thing... the critics might say whatever they want about the meaning of its characters, what they represent, and so on... for me it is clear! There is no intricate reason of what or who do they represent... it is a little bit of everyone of us in each of them... specially in Holden Caulfield. I for once, have to admit I found a lot of likenesses with good old Holden, more than anyone else in the book. I even marked the pages where I wrote on the margins "he is just like me!", for future reference, you know. Anyway, to find them it really amuses me, cause it is rarely that I find a literature character with whom I can identify so effortlessly!

Does that mean that I still am a teenager at heart, which putting it that way would be a good thing, or... could it mean that I haven't matured yet? If my detractors should one day say it is the second, let me just go on record... FUCK THEM!