The Catcher In The Rye - J. D. Salinger

Another book that I started with high hopes was "The Catcher In The Rye". J. D. Salinger and his masterpiece were in the news of recent due to the sad demise of the author earlier this year. I failed to read the news pieces (for I am lousy when it comes to reading about contemporary happenings in the world) but I did manage to find out that the book was an instiller of rebellion. Curious, I began the book with almost no idea of the content; for the title provides no clue to what is to be expected from the story, much unlike my last read, "Treasure Island".

What I faced was a beauty. Something written to provoke one's sympathy, anger, disappointment, angst. The entire novel lives a few days in the life of a sixteen year old boy. It describes his 'adventures' when he is kicked out of the school and leaves it but does not return to his home. The writing beautifully captures the confusions and the anxiety of the protagonist (or of any sixteen year old) relating to academics, human tendencies, love, sex, philosophy, religion, future and life in general. To me personally, it appealed in a way that I could relate to. The sudden bouts of romanticism; the urge to shun all pretense, to hate all those that pretended; disappointment in people's failure to understand one's self; impulses to leave everything behind for a faraway land and life in anonymity; all seemed to me as feeling that I had either lived, or had felt scraping my life, or see some around me go through. Salinger writes in a way that seems very much like a teenager describing his problems, his angst, his disappointment in others for their lack of understanding, his disappointment in himself for understanding, his love for his siblings, his hatred for 'phonies'.

What struck me as the most beautiful aspect of the story was the sudden phases of romance that the condescending youth went through. The apparent irony with which he treated every subject, the meaning of the contradictions known to him but his inability to explain them explicitly. It is the second book in which I read the author speak through the mind set of a young one, the first being Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird". The story in itself is not much but nevertheless is never boring. The author keeps it to the point and off every point at the same time. I learnt to appreciate the title as I went along. An apter one might not have been possible.

The book left me exhilarated and thoughtful. Praising the author in my mind and to the ears of every person who could lend one. I recommend it to anyone who has not read it till now. It is a delight to read Salinger in this one. I hope his others turn out similarly interesting.

Treasure Island - R. L. Stevenson

'Treasure Island' has been hailed as one of the finest pirate books. None other than J. M. Barrie, the man responsible for 'Peter Pan', praised the book as : "Over Treasure Island I let my fire die in winter without knowing I was freezing." And the name is in itself alluring. So it was with much expectation that I sat down to read the book.

I would be wronging the book if I said it was not as good as I had expected, for it was I that was expecting an enchantment out of it. The book in itself is a good piece of literature. And the world that it presents to us is a conformation of all the pirate stories, movies and fantasies that has caught our fancies at various points of time. But perhaps the charm of the book lay in its novelty, for I failed to see the book leaving an etched impression upon me. I, like all of my gender, had been a fantasiser of adventures and excitement as a boy. It is that aspect of the male psychology that the book appeals to. But I still find the abridged and illustrated version of 'Peter Pan' that I read as a kid as my epitome on pirates and their adventures.

About the book itself, what I did happen to appreciate was the remarkable crispness with which the main characters are described, especially Long John Silver, the one legged buccaneer. The rowdy pirate nature, the swinging alliances, the dominating control, all mark the very exhilarations that I was seeking from the pages. The story too is inherently a very fast and gripping one. It moves from peak to peak, avoiding the ridges and plateaus of boredom. The catchy phrases and lines are best exemplified by :

"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest -

Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"

But very ironically, the very thing that make the book fast failed to make the book great for me. The books catches your fancy fleetingly but fails to fuel your imagination. It is too quick; the descriptions are too short to live them. At times I was yearning for the story to slow down and let me "see" myself on the ship, on the island, defending the stockade, dodging the boatswain. But alas, I was thrown to the next scene as rapidly as I was put in the last.

Overall, it is a good read. Though it has lost quite a lot of its originality in the face of the several pirate movies and stories that I had already been exposed to. But I still think I would have been jumping out of excitement had I read this book as a kid. Too bad I did not.