The 100 Best One-Star Reviews of The Catcher in the Rye
"If I had written this book, I would have gone into hiding too"
On this day, 67 years ago, Little, Brown and Co. published a slim novel by a 31-year-old writer named J.D. Salinger. Since then, the book has been divisive, to say the least, but it remains an American classic, assigned in high schools across the country every year. As it turns out, not all high school students (not to mention the adults they become) are exactly happy about this, so I dug through the book’s one-star reviews on Amazon to see what the haters have to say. Sure, you’ve got your fair share of disgruntled teens, who had to read this book for English class and felt like, so bored, man. But there were a fair number of adults weighing in as well—both new readers and rereaders. Some folks were horrified at the vulgarity; some seemed to think it wasn’t vulgar enough. Most people who hated the book thought Holden was annoying. A lot of people made the same joke about Salinger: that if they’d written this book, they’d go into hiding too. Well, fair enough.
I do have to say one thing for the Catcher haters—they are much more likely than any of the other groups of one-star reviewers to actually offer alternatives to the despised book—though it does get a little mean out there with all the name-calling (Patrick J. Hogan and friends enemies, I’m looking at you). So now, without further ado, 100 hilarious, inept, intelligent, and otherwise great one-star reviews of The Catcher in the Rye.
[Click on reviews to enlarge]
