The Catcher in the Rye

The "brilliant, funny, meaningful novel" (The New Yorker) that established J. D. Salinger as a leading voice in American literature--and that has instilled in millions of readers around the world a lifelong love of books.
"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."
The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caufield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days.

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Published Jan 30, 2001

288 pages

Average rating: 6.82

594 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

What Bookclubbers are saying about this book

✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI

Readers say *The Catcher in the Rye* vividly captures adolescent struggles with authentic voice and complex character portrayal, making it a beloved c...

anne ducastel
Jan 08, 2026
8/10 stars
that book killed me-)
ariannareads01
Dec 15, 2025
4/10 stars
Read this for English 11, I didn't really like it... it was just... odd? I guess? I didn't understand it that much.... wasn't my favorite
Aravind Anilkumar
Dec 10, 2025
10/10 stars
A strange book, hard to understand fully on the very first read, or the second read or the third. It demands being thought about, it wont bloom to you unless you put your heart to it.
Declan
Nov 12, 2025
10/10 stars
I love the utter stream of consciousness.
Fombah
Nov 03, 2025
10/10 stars
Hilarious

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