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Title: Wonderful in spite of the hype, and not about disaffected youth
Review: Like most people, I was required to read this book in the late 60s. I don't have any recollection of being touched by it at all. I read it again in college, and either I thought it was all about disaffection and rejecting middle class values or I was told that by my teachers.I glanced at it again over my daughter's shoulder on a long plane ride a few years ago and couldn't wait for her to finish so I could read it again. I was shocked to see that I had completely missed the point: it's about Holden's vertiginous fall into depression after the death of his little brother. His parents and his sister are all too damaged by their own grief to help him, and he's struggling to feel something while avoiding feeling anything. These are familiar demons, beautifully evoked.
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