h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

After reading To Kill a Mocking bird a few months back, a friend said that I had to follow it by reading this.I took it on holiday expecting a fairly easy read and that's what I thought it would be initially.
Told entirely in the first person it revolves around a character called Holden Caulfield.He is 16 when the story takes place but is now retelling it to us, the reader, as a 17 year old.
AS he retells the story we find that Holden has just been expelled from school and slowly his life begins to disintegrate. What follows then is an entire novel based on the events that occur over just a few days as Holden leaves school.Interspersed with his opinions of his fellow pupils we are drawn into the world of a very troubled young man.
Today Holden would probably be diagnosed as ADHD as his hyperactivity is obvious from the outset. Soon it is apparent that Holden is on the edge of a complete breakdown. I couldn't help but be drawn to this young man , and felt such sympathy for him.His breakdown can all be traced to a major tragedy in his life but Sallinger writes in such a fast-paced throwaway style that you could miss it if you are not careful!
Holden is a manic character and despite the harrowing nature of what happens to him I laughed as well because he is so well drawn by Sallinger and has a great turn of phrase throughout.
The narrative moves along at such a pace that Holden doesn't pause to draw breath.It's a real roller-coaster of a read and left me feeling emotionally drained at the end. Not an uplifting book but one I am so glad I read. I would really recommend this book and if you started it but gave up, give it another go.It's well worth it.

brilliant review ditz and if i hadnt read the book i would rush off and buy it
however i am not certain we read the same book lol

Oh I'm sure we did..soon find out when we start discussing it!

I was trying to explain to LBP and Adrian why it was so difficult to read and why it felt very "surface", and throw-away - and I think that is what you've captured for me Ditz. He is only dealing with everything on the very surface, he's not really aware of what is happening to him and you don't have other external input in the book to help you pin it - sort of like "The Curious Incident...", its one dimensional kind of becuase the character is in that sort of place.

does any of that make sense?

Ljx

Absolutely..I think you either read it as a bystander, observing what is happening to him, or else you try to see it all from his perspective.
I think I read it as a bystander, albeit a shocked oone at the way his life unravelled before my very eyes!

sorry girls i didnt see you were talking about this
i think you are right in that it is all very superficial and throw away - the writing style is very prosaic and i didnt have the interest in the character to delve deeper - and although i like a good story where it is just a story i found a lot of the things he talked about unbelievable - like he could get a room and go to clubs and drink etc at the age he is ?
the scene where he went to the teachers was also a bit unlikely - i dunno do you think my imagination took a hike ?

I don't know about the teacher bit..I have v good friends who were my teachers at sec. school.
He said he was tall and as for getting drinks I was getting serevd when 16 as was my boyfriend...he was 6 foot 3 so that might have had something to do with it. It is a bizarre series of events but if he was on the edge of his breakdown which he obviously was and in a severe manic state then I guess anything could happen!

i am just gonna have to read it again i think cos i didnt even get the edge of the breakdown bit - what leads you to that impression

He is writing from a psychiatric unit I assume and at the end he talks about getting out of "this place" .At the start he talks about "before I got pretty run-down and had to comem out here and take it easy." and then at the end how he got sick and "one pyscho analyst guy they have here".
The whole breakdown centres around the death of his brother . thtas how I read it anyway.

totally passed me by then ditz

Great review Ditz.

Before I put my 10p’s worth in, you ladies will have to type up some sort of guide to help me write a review please, because I just haven’t got a clue where to begin.

If I hadn’t joined the R2 message board I would never have read Catcher In The Rye, it’s just not my type of book. A Classic – that’s what everyone calls it – but I can’t see what makes this book so well liked.

I won’t deny I did enjoy reading this book. I found it quite funny in places, but maybe that’s just my strange sense of humour. On the other hand though, I found Holden quite a depressing person. Throughout the book he seems fond of saying, “that’s so depressing”, which may well’ve been just a figure of speech, but I did find it quite annoying at times.

Another thing I noticed was his loneliness. It didn’t matter who was in his company, even a taxi driver he’d never met before, would be invited to go for a drink with him. I just found that strange.

I don’t know whether he was writing from a psychiatric unit, that didn’t even cross my mind to be honest. However, if he were, I would’ve thought the author would’ve made that quite clear from the start. Maybe all that passed me by too, and I just didn’t get it either.

I’m pleased I read it though…

Adrian, after reading what you have just written about Catcher there is absolutely no reason why you cant do a review..you've just done one of Catcher with your comments.
I found Holden really funny as well at times which made me feel even sadder for him as well.
Whether or not he was in a psychiatric unit or not he was in a hospital/unit of some kind I'm sure cos he wasn't at home, he had visits and they talked about what school he would go to in the Fall.
I'm glad you enjoyed it.

LBP.. will you give Catcher another go do you think?

yes i will if only to satisfy myself - as of now i agree with adrian but i certainly will re read as you and LJ have given me another perspective
gonna read mocking bird first tho and i know that i will love it all over again

I might have to dip in to refresh my memory, I read it in Feb and an awful lot of books have been read between then and now!

hmm yes an awful lot of books mind you mocking bird isnt very thick is it so it wont take long - thats why i dont mind re reading catcher it wont take long

I knew it was written from a psychiatric unit, and that he'd had a break-down - but I can't remember if I got that from the book or because I'd read "notes" around it.

He is depressing because his behaviour is circular and he does things he doesn't want to do - shouting at Sally at the ice-rink - its not how he intends things to do - getting the prostitute and not being able to do anything about it - his rage at stuff - all out of control and with no self-analysis as to why he does these things. He never talks about how his parents deal with the loss of their son - it doesn't occur to him - he doesn't emphathise with them at all....

The fact that he is in counselling at all is interesting because of when it was written - you wouldn't expect the average Joe to have a psychiatrist, but he is from a posh New York family with lots of money to back him up if he gets into too much trouble.

Mocking Bird is a different story - full narrative, written from a child's perspective and very socially minded - you are fully aware of where you are in space and time during reading it - I think it is probably a more satifying read as a result of it.

Ljx

morning LJ you ok ?
thanks for that i need as much help as i can to get my head round it - you can see from my posts that it didnt have much impact on me

Hi LJ! How are you today?
Its interesting what you say about Holden not talking about his parents' loss and it is interesting that the only person he seems to feel anything for is his little sister. I wonder if his has gone into protective mode for her because of his brother's death?
I suspect in the time the book was set noone talked much about death, you got on with it.
My parents had a daughter who died in 1965 shortly before I was born.She was 6. Bereavement counselling didn't exist and my mum told me years later that the notes from her Health Visitor said she was "coping well with the death of her eldest and birth of her youngest daughter."

How crass is that.We have moved on a bit since then thank goodness!
My brother apparently became v protective towards me when his sister died, she was older than him, he was 4 at the time.
Sorry to be so gloomy but in the context of the book I think it helps you understand Holden more.

Yes, i think you are right - my dad's older sister died before he was born (and funnily enough the same is true of my father-in-law too!) and I only found out she existed by hooking out a photo from the back of a frame when I was about 10. People just didn't talk about things like that.

My sister-in-law had a clicky hip as a baby and spent about 9 months in hospital when she was just over one year. She didn't go home during that time and even to this day she hates goodbyes and gets teary when people leave - I can quite understand why!! Thank goodness things have moved on!!

Ljx