L'Attrape-Coeurs

Hello everybody ! As promised, today's topic is "The Catcher in the Rye", an american novel I'd really love to talk about ! Perhaps you are wondering what is the report between the article's title and the novel. Well "L'attrape-coeurs" is just the french title of the novel, which we could translate by " The Hearts-Catcher". So because I prefer the french title which I find very poetic, and because I've read the novel in french, I chose "L'attrape-Coeurs" as title. 

Because of my studies, I have to read a lot of novels or plays that I don't often choose... Sometimes I enjoy what I read, sometimes not. Guess what ? "The Catcher in the Rye" became one of my favorite novels. Thanks school ! 

I am not going to spoil you, because the end of the story makes you reflect about the whole book, and wonder if some clues were here to help you to understand and predict this end ! Oh..I am talking about the end whereas you may didn't heard about the novel !

Written by american author J. D. Salinger in 1951, "The Catcher in the Rye" is a  novel originally published for adults because of its controversial topics like prostitution, school drop-out, obsession with sexuality and use of foul language...But with time and democratization, "The Catcher in the Rye" and its antihero, loved by young and old people became a literary classic. 

The story is narrated by Holden Caufield, a 17 years old teenager from New York who spends three days alone in the city after having been expelled from his school, dreading a face to face with his parents. Although the story can be summarized in one sentence, it is very complexe and focusing on the protagonist's feelings and thoughts. During the reading of "The Catcher in the Rye", I cogitated, I laughed and I finally cried, touched by a character who reminded me so much. That is the strength of the novel. Not a basic story made for teenagers, but about one teenager who everybody identify with. If you compare "The Catcher in the Rye" with "Twilight" or "The fault in our stars" , topics they contain are the same : life, death, love, sexuality...It seems to me that the things these last two well-known novels do not contain are maturity and accuracy. In Salinger's book, nothing is embellished, nothing is arranged to please the reader and make him fantasize. It is just real. It shows all the beautiful and sad things of the reality, with an incredible depth. This is not because it reflects in a right way reality that it is annoying. Nothing is more interesting than a human being, with his qualities and defaults, with his feelings and reflections... And nothing is more interesting than teenage age, with its contradictions and his depth.

Thank you Mr Salinger, for not having stigmatized adolescence like many people usually do, for not having forgotten what your adolescence was, and how difficult it can be sometimes.  

Thank you Holden, for having though too much, having been our confident for one moment.

Savannah 

PS : Did you know that "The Catcher in the Rye" is Mark David Chapman's ( the man who killed John Lennon) favorite novel ? Just after the murder, he was arrested with a copy of the book that he had purchased the same day, inside of which he had written : "To Holden Caufield, from Holden Caufield, this is my statement". He added months later that half of his soul is the devil, the other half is Holden Caufield. Cool ! 

Comments

[Ju]

I will read it sav !

[Olympe]

I love this article which makes me want to read the book. Thank you Sav