Small.Island.in.World.Three

The story was very well told. I was pulled into the world enough to look around it and feel that it was lived in. However, I didn't like Holden. I realize that in the abstract, it isn't important that a reader like a main character. Sometimes that might work very much against the point of a work. Maybe that is the case with this work. But I read in various places that plenty of people do like Holden... well, actually I guess I read that plenty of people can feel some identification with Holden. Not the same. But few seem to mention the sort of dislike that I feel for him.

When I say that I dislike him, I don't just mean that in an abstract way. Heck in the abstract frame I know that he is a character meant to be a sort of sounding-board/case-study of a particular mental disposition with which we readers can gage our own position and mental framework. I mean that I disliked him in a visceral way. I found living in his head with his thoughts to be uncomfortable to say the least, and repugnant to say the worst (which is a bit further than the actual truth, it may have been close to repugnant at times, I don't know that it ever crossed the line). All of that is to say that a dislike feeling was the results of my measuring myself against the abstraction of Holden. That the feeling was so clear and held steady for so long while reading is a testament to the craft work of the book, it is a very well constructed piece of literature. I don't want my personal distaste for the main character to give the impression that I think anything otherwise.

I think I was a bit put off by an unfulfilled expectation that I had while reading up until maybe the last few scenes. I was under the mistaken impression that something was going to... well, to happen. There would be a plot. Silly me, I know. I guess I was too thick to realize that I wasn't reading that kind of book. That it was the psychological sounding-board/case-study kind of book instead. So I really can't fault the book for my mistaken expectation and how it gave me something of a letdown again and again as my hopes waxed and waned. By the time I really gave up the hope, I was reconciled to, and more than happy with, the actual book I was reading, so that final letdown was really kind of a lift-up.

Overall, my opinion is that The Catcher in the Rye deserves it's reputation as a "must read" book. Do read it. Don't expect or try to pretend you like everything about it or the characters (I wouldn't fully believe anyone that said they do about Holden). But you can expect a compelling view into a world and mind. I know it has led me to look around a bit more sometimes, for the "fuck you" left behind by the phonies that have come before me.

Guess I should write one of these. Now that I've had net access at home again for a while, my excuse for not doing so is long since gone gone.

Life these days is the typical sort of week cycle that we adult humans have in this culture. Two days are "class days" for me which involve morning class, afternoon homework/study/grad-BS. (The grad-BS seems to have a minimum of like 1 hrs in which I have to go by a mailbox, talk to someone about something, turn a form in, etc.) The other three days are hidec work, theoretically... they don't all happen that the work to do is down there or that down there has something useful that could be done. Weekends are weekends. A cycle of social engagements with a steady small stream of semi-random other ones. Productive time, hobby time, happy time spent with wonderful gal J.S. (for whom my love grows monotonically). The wheels spin, the sands fall, large bodies in space revolve.

I considered doing a quick timeline of what has been going on since my last posting. Major events, persons seen, new facts, scandalous revelations, key plot points to elucidate my character's inner motivations, etc. Not going to. You'll cope.

Which might lead one to wonder just what I will talk about. So I'll get on with posting my first ever book review.