i know i should try not to let other people’s opinions get to me (it’s kind of my whole problem; thanks family!) but it makes me genuinely upset when people talk shit about Salinger, and Catcher in the Rye. that was a good-ass book when I read it at 19, and I’m enjoying it again now

but for some reason I’ve seen 4 or 5 people say something about hating this book recently, and it’s fine if you didn’t like it! but, actually it’s not. this adhd-ass kid flunking out from depression is too real

if you don’t relate, I shudder to think how you treat neurodivergent people!

disclaimer: I know some shit goes down in the end and I’m fuzzy on what exactly it is. But I read 60 pages yesterday and feel both empathy for Holden’s unaccommodated neurodivergence and grief, and that obviously he’s not Correct about everything.

Reading Salinger’s other books right after Catcher really reframed the whole thing for me. Holden is very clearly A Character, one I think Salinger understands. But he wrote ably about very different Characters, with more tenderness and melancholy

@splendorr I catch myself harshly judging anything public school forced me to read while testing the correctness of my interpretation 🥲
@tylersticka that’s kinda what I’m doing! revisiting some things to see what I think about them as a grown-ass woman. I don’t blame anybody who encountered something in school and didn’t love it! but I’m very interested in things Everybody Hates now. Sometimes they’re right! But I also enjoy reading things that might feature characters or events you aren’t supposed to like or agree with. I’m trying to say all of this without being a snob (even if I… am a snob 😅)
@splendorr I love it! Your post made me interrogate my own knee-jerk reaction to a novel I haven’t read in decades.
@tylersticka oh great! that’s all I’m trying to do for myself! make sure I’m not carrying the baggage of a misreading, misremembering, or simply a consensus I don’t want