Catcher in the Rye: a new reading
I’ve said before that Catcher in the Rye is possibly the most over-rated book ever written and tome of choice for Beatle murderers and permanent adolescents everywhere.
However, after listening to I’ve Never Seen Star Wars on Radio 4 this evening, I might just have changed my mind. In an attempt to get the mighty Barry Cryer to embrace the book, Marcus Brigstocke suggested reading it in the voice of E.L. Wisty.
Trust me, it works. I’m off out to buy a second hand copy tomorrow.
Posted on February 4th, 2009 at 7:12pm under Culture, media and sport
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• 6 Comments |
Actually, it’s the repressed farmer who murders the cad in Far from the Madding Crowd, not the other way around. I had to do the book for O level English literature, along with To Kill a Mockingbird, and I haven’t been able to look at either of them since. But I remember them, the fuckers. I wish I didn’t, but I do.
Oh bum, you’re right. I must have been distracted by Terence Stamp’s moustache.
We must have done O Level English in the same year. I actually remember To Kill a Mockingbird with a large degree of fondness. It must have been good if it managed warmed the heart of the vulgarian 16 year-old me.
Ahaha! That’s glorious…
“I ‘ad a friend called Ackley; e’ was very pimply. People used to come up to ‘im and say “‘Ello…aren’t you a pimply one.” Darn phonies.”
I like To Kill A Mockingbird, and the film is one of the best adaptations ever. Far From The Madding Crowd is fine as well, but then I read them out of choice rather than being forced to do so at school, which always helps.
If I had to nominate and overrated book I would say de Lillo’s “Underworld”.
I can’t say if it’s the most over-rated book ever written, but “Catcher in The Rye” is almost certainly the most over-rated book I’ve ever read.
No, wait, hand on a minute – I’ve just gone back and looked at that list of 100 books, and it’s reminded me of the existence of “On The Road” by Jack Kerouac. Now that is the most over-rated book I’ve ever read.
Well, I only read five pages of it, but they were probably over-rated.
The other books mentioned here are masterpieces. They do all have a tendency to sentimentality, but that’s not a disqualification for great literature.