But I love the “H.P. Salinger’s The Lurker in the Rye” concept. 🙂

I think that, because it was published in 1951, it got caught up in a lot of post-war, baby boomer hype. As such it became the standard for “modern day” (as opposed to the Victorian Era stuff that preceded it) coming of age stories. So while there are better stories that have come out since, it has been so over-analyzed that it has become a standard for the coming of age genre.

It may take another 20-30 years before it gets dropped from high school curricula.

I think that was Truman Capote writing about Jack Kerouac’s ‘On The Road’ (another overrated classic).

I’ve only read Catcher once and even when I was 16 I couldn’t see why it was supposed to be a big deal. I was further mystified when I later learned that this thin, little novel created a cult around J.D. Sallinger, who never went on to publish anything else in his lifetime. If this novel was another Moby Dick or Gravity’s Rainbow I could understand the fascination but, really, “where’s the beef”?