San Antonio College Library

This volume in the Critical Insights series presents a variety of new essays on the perennial theme. Essays survey the critical conversation regarding the theme, explore its cultural and historical contexts, and offer close and comparative readings of key.

This volume argues that, with the death of Salinger, we are at a threshold moment in our long obsession with Holden and its eccentric author, a chance to re-approach The Catcher in the Rye. We can approach the book now as readers. As it turns out, there is more to Holden Caulfield than, well, Holden. And there is more to Catcher in the Rye than Sonny Salinger. Liberated from the need to identify with (or the zeal to condemn) Holden Caulfield, liberated...

"In Cold Fear examines the censorship controversies over J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye as a cultural debate occurring across America, from 1954 to the present day. Catcher presents a narrative in which adolescent embrace of American ideals of individualism and egalitarianism lead to criticism and rejection of dominant postwar social practices - a narrative as threatening to some adults as it is heartening to others. Attempts to remove Catcher...

This volume brings together critical essays on The Catcher in the Rye (1951), representing three decades from the 1950s through the 1980s. It includes a number of key reviews that appeared shortly after the publication of the novel. The introduction by Salzberg traces the history of the criticism and places it in the context of Salinger's overall career. The two dozen pieces in the volume reflect virtually every critical school. Freudian and Marxist...

Sanford Pinsker's reading of the Catcher in the Rye goes through the novel chronologically, in a manner perfectly conducive to side-by-side reading, and provides helpful chapters on historical background and critical reception. It's Christmas time and Holden Caulfield has just been expelled from yet another school. Fleeing the crooks at Pencey Prep, he pinballs around New York City seeking solace in fleeting encounters -- shooting the bull with strangers...