The issue I had was that the book just seemed like a lot of wingeing to me back then.
Later on, and after some therapy, it turns out that I was just going through a lot of abuse at the time and just kinda hid all my feelings. Still do, really. That the characters felt anything was, to old me, just a sign that they weren't working hard enough. 'Like, come on, everyone knows life sucks, right? Just get over Daisy you idiot'. Yeah, no, that's not how people work, it wasn't how I was supposed to work.
I guess that's why it's a classic. You reread it later and see all these tings in you that changed too, but the words just stay the same.
I still maintain that 'Cather in the Rye' is just a rich kid complaining about nothing though. I hated that book and Holden too, seems just overly spoiled to me.
Great comment. I grew up with the "life sucks" and "work harder" mentality. Both of them eat you up inside, and I lost at least a decade to doubling down on them when they didn't work well over time. Sounds like this book will be interesting in more ways than I expected.
> I still maintain that 'Cather in the Rye' is just a rich kid complaining about nothing though
Teenage me loved it. I'm curious what dad me thinks now.
