[Zman516]

Pretty much my assessment of it also.

I think the main reason liberals were so orgasmic about it is because it had the F-word in it a couple of times which was apparently a big deal when it was published.

[Borges]

It’s popped on lists of all time favorite conservative novels.

[Jack Hydrazine]

"Reader Worryo1 says it better than I do: A radical is dead. I do not regret this person’s passing. “The Catcher in the Rye” and its main character, Holden Caufield, were used as templates for the youth culture of the 60’s. The idea that you could not trust anyone over 30 came directly out of “Catcher’s” depiction of phony and corrupt adults. A now cliched theme about bad adults versus good young people came out of that novel, and was reproduced time and again for decades after 1951. You had a template for the antics of a Jerry Rubin or Tom Hayden, or even the terror of the Weather Underground in the character of Holden Caufield. Also, high schools fed into this by having “The Catcher in the Rye” as required reading in literature classes. It was a very mediocre novel, but its impact was huge. Even the Christian Science Monitor’s reviewer back in1951 predicted that novel’s nasty fallout." From Debbie Schlussel. http://www.debbieschlussel.com/16216/2-bird-w-one-stone-buh-bye-zinn-salinger/#more-16216