a year of classics

Having a classic book on your home library shelf distinguishes you as one of those readers- not afraid to read something that hasn't appeared on the NY Times Best Seller list in a while.  Someone who likes reading with a dictionary by her side.  Okay, maybe that's just a stereotype that I hold, mostly out of my own discomfort with my reading ability when it comes to "the classics."  With 5 Minutes for Books' Classics Bookclub taking a new spin this year, I made a goal, and I'm sticking to it.  (Hopefully.)  Okay, it's over a year's time, but I'm slowly easing myself into it with just four classics.

The first checking-in-time has come, and I'm happy to say that I read one classic this quarter, even if I cheated because technically it was the selection of my online book club and I was going to read it anyway...  Ahem.  Well, back in February I re-read J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.  (Ironically enough, TCITR was supposed to be our January selection, but then things got pushed back, and then it just happened to be the time of Salinger's death.  Apparently, that posed a challenge for some people who suddenly found it difficult to find a copy of the book at their libraries!)  I read this for the first time in high school, I believe for AP English class in senior year, and I gave it another go in 2006, shortly after Red was born and we were doing some traveling.  (Lots of time in a car should equal lots of reading time goes the theory.)  That second reading was tainted by lots of time in a car with a screaming two-month-old and a less than ideal "vacation" week, so I wasn't putting too much stock in my lack of enthusiasm about that re-read.  After I read it this year, I wrote my mini-review as such:

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Oh, Holden Caulfield. When I first read your 200+ page stream of consciousness diatribe as a teenager, I felt your pain somewhat. I understood "phonies" in my own sense, which probably differed a bit from your vision, but the frustration with "others" was certainly something that I could relate to. Now as an adult, I think my reaction was mostly a desire to tell you that your sensitivity and perceptiveness would help you in years to come, if you can learn to channel it more appropriately. Also, I couldn't help but shake my head at how you could simultaneously be so perceptive and also completely clueless about the consequences of your own choices and actions. I guess as a mom, I wanted to hug you AND slap you.

What more could be said about Salinger's iconic representation of the disaffected adolescent voice that hasn't been articulated for the last 60 years? I certainly can't add anything new to it, even if you really wanted to hear about it, anyway.

So yes, I did enjoy it again the third time around, even as my perspective changed from relating to him and feeling for him.  This book sparked a lively conversation among my fellow book clubbers, with some people LOVING it, but some people just feeling like "Meh.  What's the big deal?" about it.  I do think this does, and always will, qualify as a "classic" if only because of the unique voice that Salinger gave to a youth that had not yet been represented in this way.  This is one book that I'm super-thrilled was never made into a movie!

Are you participating in our classics sort-of-challenge?  If so, link up over at 5 Minutes for Books' Classics Bookclub today!


One down, three to go,