Jonathan Yardley of The Washington Post writes about J.D. Salinger and The Catcher in the Rye, in this delayed criticism.

Of the book Mr. Yardley calls “the essential document of American adolescence,” he asks these questions: “Why is a book about a spoiled rich kid kicked out of a fancy prep school so widely read by ordinary Americans, the overwhelming majority of whom have limited means and attend, or attended, public schools? Why is Holden Caulfield nearly universally seen as ‘a symbol of purity and sensitivity’ (as The Oxford Companion to American Literature puts it) when he’s merely self-regarding and callow? Why do English teachers, whose responsibility is to teach good writing, repeatedly and reflexively require students to read a book as badly written as this one?”

The above are not all answered satisfactorily, but the article does re-examine the merits of the book, one of the most influential ever in the modern world of American teenagers.

Vinnee Tong