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July 16, 1951

The document discusses a 1949 book review of J.D. Salinger's novel 'The Catcher in the Rye'. The reviewer notes the book's popularity despite being a simple story of a troubled teenager. It reflects experiences common to sensitive 16-year-olds. While specific to the main character, it becomes more general and predictable. The skill in conveying adolescent emotions made it relatable to many readers.

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Collier Meyerson
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© © All Rights Reserved
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4K views2 pages

July 16, 1951

The document discusses a 1949 book review of J.D. Salinger's novel 'The Catcher in the Rye'. The reviewer notes the book's popularity despite being a simple story of a troubled teenager. It reflects experiences common to sensitive 16-year-olds. While specific to the main character, it becomes more general and predictable. The skill in conveying adolescent emotions made it relatable to many readers.

Uploaded by

Collier Meyerson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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South.

They were, in effect, nine normal


boys in the grip of a depression-ridden
society. ldf these nine boys were normal products of heir society, it is easy
TV understand why &hat society sought
to convict them of a orime vf which
they were imanifestly innocent.
At first, practically al& the respectable
elements En Alabama-the clergy, the
bar, &ho press, tithe universities-were
discreetly or cravenly silent. Like other
Alabamans they resented the fact that
one of the defendants lawyers, Samuel
keibowitz, was a New York Jew. In
this early period, however, Judge James
E. Horton achieved at least a minor
niche in the annals of the independence
of the Am&tan judiciary when in 1933
he granted a new trial. The next year
he was defeated for reelection.

However, a few Alabamans-among


them, Grover Hall, Guy Snavely, James
Chapell, Donald ,Gmer, and Henry M.
Edmonds-later
formed an Alabama
Scottsboro Defense Committee of fortynine whi,te and colored citizens who contributed mightily to ultimate victory for
justice. Having lived for many years in
the Deep South, I share the authors
admiration for their courage in defying
the vicious prejudices of their commu- nities. But I cannot agree with Dr.
Chalmerss categorical statement: It is
axiomatic g&that
if one intends to change
society, he will not be successful if he
works from the outside. No attempt
was being made tb transform society but
rather to free nine innocent boys. The
author recognizes that Leibowitzs contribution to the ultimate victory was immeasurable. So was that of the author,
ihe National Association for the Advancement .of Colored People, the
American Civil Liber,ties Union, and
other outsiders, including the Supreme
Court of the U&ted States.
Perhaps the Communists also contributed to the ultimate victory. Dr.
Chalmers accords the clichhc that their
participation made it impossible either
to execute or to acquit the accused.
There can be little doubt that the Communists were more interested in laying
bare ,the Souths sickness than In obtaining an acquittal. And yet, as the
author traces tie developments, it was
not until alter the <Communists had
blatantly ievealed the forces bebind the
conviction that Southern liberals entered
the arena. Post hoc, ergo @opter hoc?

ery imperfectly disguise%his conviction


of madness and guilt.
His senseof dienation is almost complete-from
parents, from friends,
from society in general as represented
by the prep s&ad from which he has
been expelled and the night-club and
hotel world of New York,in which he
endures a week-end exile while hiding
out from his family. Wth his -alienation go assorted hatreds-of the movies,
of night clubs, of social and intelleotual
pretension, and so on. And physical disgust: pimples, sex, an old man picking
his nose are all equally causefor nausea.
It is of little Importance that the alienation, the h&reds, and & disgust are
RAYFORD
W. LOGAN
those of a sixteen-year-old. Any reader,
.
sharing
or
remembering
sometl+g
like
case
m&y
ad- Ann
of
Us
them, will agree with the conclusion to
THE CATCHER IN, T& RYE. By be drawn from this unhappy odyssey:
J. D. Salinger. Little, Brown and to borrow a line from Auden, We
Company. $3.

must love one another or die. After


every other human -being has failed
CHOES reach me of the popularity
him,
Caulfield still has his loving tenof The Catcher in the Rye. Why
year-old
sister to love; she embodies the
has ithis unpretentious, mildly affecting
innocence
we all hape we have prechronicle of a few days in the life of a
served
and
the wisdom we all hope we
disturbed adolescent been read with
have
acquired.
enthusiasm by Book-of-theiMonth Club
The skill with which all ,&thishas been
and lending-library ad&s ordinarily
worked
into 277 pages is most inconcerned with fiction as a frivolous
genious.
But as it proceeds on its indiversion or as a source of lofty, inconsights,
which
are not really insights
troveatible platitudes?
since
they
are
so
general, The Catcher
Enbirely, I ,think, because, like many
in
the
Bye
becomesmore and more a
contemporary and highly praised novels .
-case
history
of
all
of
us. Radically this
written on the assumption that the mere
-writing
depends
on
the
readers recolrecord of budding sensitiveness autolection
of
merely
similar
difficulties;
the
matically results in fiction, the book is a
.
un.ique
crisis
and
the
unique
anguish
. ,
mirror. It reflects something not at all
are
not
re-created.
These
emotional
ups
rich and strange but what every sensitive
sixteen-year-old since Rousseau has felt, and downs become increasingly factiand of course what each one of us is tious-so much must be included to
elicit memories of so many callow hea&certain he has felt.
Mr. &linger attempts to make his breaks-and though always liirely in its
story specific, ,but it is consltantly escap- parts, the book as a whole is predictable
ERNEST JONES
ing into generalities. Holden Caulfield and boring.
is friendiy, democratil, well-bred,
and snobbish in ways peculiar to adoles- The
lhegisd
Doctrine
cence. He has the beginnings of. taste;
*
corny is a term &equent in his speech. I.&MGLWf. A Chapter for the History
of
Modern
Poetry.
By
Statiley
K.
A virgin, he never knows exactly-what
C&man, Jr, University of Oklahoma
any girl may be expecting of him and is
-I
Press. $3.
afraid to make love to the prostitute
supplied by an obliging bellhop. He
STERATURE & formed less by
mistakes whatever is spontaneous in his
movements ithan by men, less by
behavior for madness; %ut Im crazy. men than by their writings. Unlike poliI swearto. God I aml Ilf he acts on in+ tics, it does not depend on org&pulse he feels guilty, thdugh also boast- aional efficlacy. If it did, &he Imagist
ful: J[m &e most &2r1ific liar you ever movement, which flourished between
saw in your life. Bravado and buffoon- Z912 and 1912 In England and Amer=
I dont know, but liberals wherever they
are would feel more sure of Southern
liberalism in the early 1930s if it had
entered the lists before the mother of
one of the accused had spoken in
twenty-eight European countries. Few of
us, North or South, like to have our
maiadies laid bare for neighbors or
strangers to see in &I1 their malignancy.
The real value of this enthralling narrative lies, therefore, in its explicit and
implicit interpretat@ of Alabama society from 1931 to 1950 and in its
analysis of the forces within and witiout this society that achieved the ultimate victoiy for justice.

176

The
.

NATIS%

.(

1I
1

~i

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