Growing up with J D Salinger
The death of J D Salinger this week gave me an excuse for digging out my old copy of The Catcher in the Rye. It’s a few years since I last read it but, along with Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, it’s probably the novel I’ve re-read the most. Indeed for several years it became a ritual to read it on my way home for Christmas, in homage to Holden Caulfield’s narrative.
As I’ve got older, I’ve increasingly warmed to Mr. Antolini – Holden’s empathetic highball-swigging ex-English teacher. Debates on his ambiguous homosexuality in Chapter 24 often overshadow his eloquent words on the painful transition to adulthood, and the values of scholarship and learning:
“Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them – if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry.”
Tags: books
