maiathebee replied to your post “books finished in 2019an american marriage by tayari jones”
I love Catcher in the Rye soooo much. One of my major personal traumas (lol) was finding out people thought it was disconnected and unrelatable and whiny... and i was like... but.... do u not know pathos
omg it’s SO hopeful at the end, and holden’s love for phoebe, and how what he wants to do is just like protect kids (and like...every year i get older the understanding of just how vulnerable children are becomes clearer and clearer to me and no one really talks about it???), and how fucking awful he feels but he’s still reaching out for human connection, just searching searching searching even though he’s almost jaded, how much he loves and misses allie, and isn’t the whole “i’m gonna fuck off and disappear and live in the woods” exactly what we’re all always wanting to do, just disappear from the bullshit and performance and expectations??? also nyc and all the people in it, all the different people you meet, all the potential for connection, but all the disappointments. also like. catcher in the rye manages to have holden be a kid while allowing him to grapple with being on the threshold of adulthood and this was before “ya lit” was a category, before it was something people published into to try to make money like...catcher in the rye is what modern ya *thinks* it’s doing












