First published 2001
Sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield has just been kicked out of Pencey Prep. Instead of heading home to face his parents, he wanders New York City alone, killing time between trains and encounters. His world is a minefield of adult hypocrisy: prep school administrators, taxi drivers, nightclub performers, all seem fake and calculated. Desperate to protect childhood innocence—symbolized by his beloved sister Phoebe—Holden cycles through bars, hotels, and random conversations, increasingly unstable and isolated. He wants connection but can't stop analyzing everyone's fraudulent behavior. As his mental state deteriorates, Holden becomes both observer and potential victim of his own disintegrating perspective. One wrong move could send him over an emotional cliff. At stake: whether he can survive adolescence without completely losing himself.
Genres: fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, coming-of-age, adolescence
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: New York City
Period: 20th Century
277 pages · Paperback · Back Bay Books
Content warnings: mental-illness