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Title: A Great Read
Review: I first read THE CATCHER IN THE RYE twenty years ago and I return to itevery few years because I always find it so rewarding. What makes it asuperb novel is the voice of the narrator, Holden Caulfield. He isunreliable -- we know he must have a tenderness deeper than what he tellsus. It's difficult to create an unreliable narrator, because the reader isasked both to like and dislike the main character. But when it is done wellit is wonderfully engaging.In the years since I first read it I've looked often for a good narratorthat was as likably unlikable. I finally found one in a new novel --- LOVESONGS OF THE TONE-DEAF, by Asher Brauner -- which I recommend to anyone wholiked CATCHER IN THE RYE. Both novels are about alienation -- the ways inwhich young people feel no one understands them -- and the ways in whichthat assumption is probably true.Read both these books -- you'll love them.
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