Salinger, J D: The Catcher in the Rye

Witty, wise and bittersweet, The Catcher in the Rye is the ultimate American coming-of-age novel - a timeless classic It's Christmas 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 in dive hotels, wandering alone round Central Park, getting beaten up by pimps and cut down by erstwhile girlfriends. The city is beautiful and terrible, in all its neon loneliness and seedy glamour, its mingled sense of possibility and emptiness. Holden passes through it like a ghost, thinking always of his kid sister Phoebe, the only person who really understands him, and his determination to escape the phonies and find a life of true meaning. The Catcher in the Rye is an all-time classic coming-of-age story: an elegy to teenage alienation, capturing the deeply human need for connection and the bewildering sense of loss as we leave childhood behind. 'He wrote a perfect novel and it changed US culture forever' Independent 'It was a very pure voice he had. There was no one like him' Martin Amis 'He was the poet of youthful alienation before youth really knew what that was' Sunday Times 'His work meant a lot to me when I was a young person and his writing still sings now' Dave Eggers