Why did I love this book?
This novel made a lifelong impression on me when I read it as a teenager growing up in New York City. The descriptions of the underbelly of the city along with Holden Caulfield’s deep alienation spoke to me because here was a person from an upper-class background whose estrangement and distress resembled my own. Up until that point I had thought that only economically disadvantaged people had problems. This was my first experience with how reading could expand my worldview.
19 authors picked The Catcher in the Rye as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
After leaving prep school Holden Caulfield spends three days on his own in New York City.