Thank you, J.D. Salinger (1919-2010).

Thank you, thank you, thank you for The Catcher in the Rye. Thank you for valuing your privacy and for respecting imagination. Thank you for insisting that no movie is made of this classic, important, identity-shaping, thought-provoking, evocative novel that would attach an actor's face, a person's voice, an interpretation other than my own to Holden Caulfied. I love the idea that he is off limits- that Hollywood cannot get its tinsel-wielding, pill-popping hands on the character that meant so much to me when I was in high school. He lives within all of us, he lives in the literary world, he lives in my imagination, and in yours.

As an English teacher, I enjoy teaching this book for so many reasons. It instantly returns me to my coming of age years when I, too, was a bundle of contradictions, confusion, self-loathing, self-pity, insecurity, and disappointment in others. I wanted to grow up, but not if growing up meant abandoning my values and becoming someone I couldn't respect. I can relate so directly to the experiences Holden had, and the images and symbols throughout the work are forever ingrained in my consciousness. The baseball glove, the ducks, the record, the Museum of Natural History, holding Jane's hand, the checkers board, etc.

The story itself has a realism to it- I can see what Holden describes as he tells of experiences. I can picture Jane and I can picture Sally. I can picture his prep school dorm room. I can see the cab and the ducks he's asking the driver about. Can't you? But more impressive is what each of these moments he takes us through symbolically represents. I remember being amazed when I finally understood why he admired Jane for keeping her kings in the back row and why he enjoyed his memories of the museum so much. There IS something valuable about our innocent, childhood memories that I don't want to see change either. We all to some extent want to preserve our younger years. And if I'd lost a sibling to a disease like Holden did, I might be a little more hell-bent on it than most people. And, of course I love the title, too.

Readers are forced to wonder: what comes of Holden in the end? Is he well? Is he bitter? Is he struggling? is he still hospitalized? Does he ever graduate from high school? Do any of us ever graduate from high school?

What a timeless, wonderful, agonizing book. What an incredible gift to the world.