Controversial but captivating book

The Catcher In The Rye is a controversial book both due to its content and the amount of profanity and because of the writing style. Is it a great book written in a satirical style? Is it a poor book written by a subpar author? That's really up to you to decide although in my case I feel it's the former. It's a short story written in a very novel fashion - as if the main character, Holden Caulfield, was telling you the story rather than you reading it. This brings an interesting perspective to the book and of course leads to bias. There is much debate over the main character and whether he is a genius or simply crazy; of course, since we only have his perspective, there is author bias and we shall never know. Holden is famous for calling everyone "phonies", people he sees as fake but without quite describing why.

Holden Caulfield is a mysterious character and despite the fact that the story is told through him you still never quite feel like you know the character and there is a lot that goes unexplained. This is a book that divides people more than most others and you could read 20 reviews of it and come away with 20 different beliefs/interpretations. The best way to decide if you like this book or not is to read it yourself. It's a short book you can easily finish in a day and well worth it so you can join in the debate. Plus it's required reading on quite a few college reading lists!