The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger (1951)
“The most banned book in American high schools is also the most honest portrait of what being sixteen actually feels like — because Holden Caulfield says what everyone thinks and nobody admits.”
Short Summary
Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-year-old prep school dropout, spends three days wandering New York City after being expelled from Pencey Prep. He drinks in bars, hires a prostitute (then doesn't use her), reconnects with an old girlfriend, visits his beloved younger sister Phoebe, and sees his former English teacher Mr. Antolini before suffering what appears to be a mental breakdown. The novel ends with Holden in a California sanitarium, telling his story to a therapist he distrusts.
Detailed Summary
Holden Caulfield is telling his story from a rest home in California, looking back at the events of December, some months prior. He begins at Pencey Prep in Agerstown, Pennsylvania — a school he's being expelled from for failing four subjects. He watches the football game from a hilltop alone, then ...