In Defense of Holden Caulfield
Thursday, December 18, 2008 
I posted this over at Jamie Ford's blog earlier this week in response to Jamie's recent experience while reading from his new book at a local high school in Montana. During a conversation in which he asked the kids about their favorite books, they apparently told him "The Catcher in the Rye was just about this lame emo kid...." Blasphemy.
Holden remains the coolest kid in American literature in my book. Maybe if kids today paid a bit less attention to the Google, and YouTubal, and Paris Hilltop, and the Internets and world wide webcams more broadly, and a bit more to, say, books, we wouldn't have such a strong difference of opinion here. (Yes I am one hundred and fifty years old.)
Salinger was one of my gods when I was a kid. In the late eighties, the summer after 11th grade, my two best friends and I got in a car in upstate New York and drove north to Cornish, New Hampshire intent on finding him. It was our first road trip and at the time, angst-ridden and painfully earnest as we were in that sweet style of The Breakfast Club (or say, The Catcher in the Rye), it felt like the most important thing we'd ever do. No one had interviewed him in 30 years, but we were certain we'd be able to coax him out of his hermited existence and persuade him to answer our questions about life, and death, and Zen.
All we had to go on were a photo of his mailbox (which didn't have a number) and a description of his house (he was, of course, unlisted). We stayed up all night the previous night planning exactly what we'd say to convince him to let us in. (It was some arcane question about the Fat Lady who appears at the end of Franny and Zooey).
On the third day of the trip, we reached Cornish. We drove down every street we could find in that tiny New England town, two or three times. Many were just rough dirt. I remember having to stop the car completely when goats crossed in front of us.
We never found JD's house, or at least we didn't know that we did. Late in the day when the sun started going down, we finally gave up. We picked up some sandwiches at the only store in town and headed out, devastated, but with the feeling that we somehow knew him better than we had, and that maybe that would be enough.
Seth Fleisher
This from a gentleman who had more luck and actually met JD.
Reader Comments (4)
UM. Seth? Seth?! WHY ISN'T THIS A SHORT STORY! it sounds like an awesome potential short story.
Yeah, it's a good point. Funny thing was I hadn't thought about this trip in years. When I started the blog entry I suddenly had the same sense about its potential as a story. Though perhaps better as part of a memoir. You know as soon as we're famous, Jade, the publishers are going to be chomping at the proverbial bit for our memoirs. I've been thinking maybe it's important to leave a life story or two unfictionalized for this purpose :)
I have to agree with the whole generational thing. I didn't read Catcher in the Rye until I was an adult and loved it. It actually influenced my book-especially the ending. But I share your concern for this generation and their exposure to all the techno gadgets and not enough reading. Especially now as a mother myself it really brings it home. I'm going to be one of those tough nut parents-I don't care if other kids do it....
Yes, yes, tough nut parenting. I'm all for it.