I spent two hours last night re-reading  The Catcher in the Rye.  t's been about 15 years since I read this novel (amazingly, I missed out on the pleasure of discussing this book in any of my high school English classes).  Last time I read Catcher, I was pursuing my MFA and was particularly obsessed by issues of voice in a novel.  Whatever your feelings about Catcher, its voice is undeniably distinctive and, for that reason alone, it deserves its place in American literary annals. 

This time, I'm returning to Catcher while juggling classes both as a student and as a teacher.  Interestingly, I took an education class this past summer about Special Education and was especially unnerved last night by Holden's scenes with teachers and administrators.  If this book were written today, assessments, special educators, counselors, and prescribed drugs would probably overwhelm the narrative.  

In any case, I will be spending this afternoon helping a high school student "get" the Catcher.  This book is so rich in character and voice and conflict, that I'm quite excited to be teaching it. Of course, when I mentioned that I'd be teaching this book today to my class of high school students yesterday, they groaned in unison.  Then one student piped up and said they would've enjoyed this book if they had read it as an adult.  I must admit, if forced to read this book in high school, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much, and would have spent the whole class making snide remarks to my friends about horny boys.  Is it a mistake to teach this book in high school? Under the guidance of the right teacher, no, but if badly handled, it could easily fall into "books I hated reading in high school" category. That said I hope I do Catcher justice this afternoon.  Wish me luck.

And here's an excerpt from the opening:

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. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them. They’re quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They’re nice and all – I’m not saying that – but they’re also touchy as hell. Besides, I’m not going to tell you my whole goddamn autobiography or anything. I’ll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy.