READ THIS: The Catcher in the Rye
Whom You Know guesses that many of you have read this Manhattan classic, but for those of you that have not, it is an absolute MUST READ. Holden Caulfield is one of the most entertaining and thought-provoking characters ever to grace Manhattan fiction, and Peachy Deegan would just love to meet him for a cheeseburger at JG Melon with his kid sister Phoebe if he actually existed.
Here are some of Whom You Know's most favorite quotes from Holden Caulfield of the Catcher in the Rye:
"I live in New York, and I was thinking about the lagoon in Central Park, down near Central Park South. I was wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home, and if it was, where did the ducks go? I was wondering where the ducks went when the lagoon got all icy and frozen over. I wondered if some guy came in a truck and took them away to a zoo or something. Or if they just flew away."
"I think if you don't really like a girl, you shouldn't horse around with her at all, and if you do like her, then you're supposed to like her face, and if you like her face, you ought to be careful about doing crumby stuff to it, like squirting water all over it. It's really too bad that so much crumby stuff is a lot of fun sometimes."
"When the weather's nice, my parents go out quite frequently and stick a bunch of flowers on old Allie's grave. I went with them a couple of times, but I cut it out. In the first place, I don't enjoy seeing him in that crazy cemetery. Surrounded by dead guys and tombstones and all. It wasn't too bad when the sun was out, but twice - twice - we were there when it started to rain. It was awful. It rained on his lousy tombstone, and it rained on the grass on his stomach. It rained all over the place. All the visitors that were visiting the cemetery started running like hell over to their cars. That's what nearly drove me crazy. All the visitors could get in their cars and turn on their radios and all and then go someplace nice for dinner - everybody except Allie. I couldn't stand it. I know it's only his body and all that's in the cemetery, and his soul's in Heaven and all that crap, but I couldn't stand it anyway. I just wished he wasn't there."
"All the kids kept trying to grab for the gold ring, and so was old Phoebe, and I was sort of afraid she'd fall off the goddam horse, but I didn't say anything or do anything. The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them."
"Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."
The escapades of Caulfield contrasted with his pleasant visits to the Central Park Zoo with Phoebe paint the picture of one who stumbles along the path to maturity in brilliant fashion. Sixteen-year-old Holden is a genuine character and as a reader, he will win you over with his directness, intolerance to anything phony and persistence for acceptance in a world where he feels he does not always belong.
He overcomes getting kicked out of Pencey Prep, he summers in Maine seeing Jane Gallagher, and even if you are not a preppy or one that summers in New England, his character's ability to win you over will overcome such cultural differences, and even generational differences as this novel is from the 1950s.
Holden says in Chapter 3:
"What really knocks me out is a book, when you're all done reading it, you wished the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it."
That is how Whom You Know feels about you, Holden Caulfield!
