Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Salinger, J. D. - Susan K. Mitchell （essay date December 1992）

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Susan K. Mitchell （essay date December 1992）

SOURCE: “‘To Tell You the Truth …,’” in CLA Journal, Vol. XXXVI, No. 2, December, 1992, pp. 145-56.

[In the following essay, Mitchell examines the critical reception of The Catcher in the Rye and discusses Holden's problematic narrative perspective. “Holden's unreliability,” writes Mitchell, “forces us to question everything about the subject: Holden's view, society's view, our own view as readers.”]

To the uncritical reader, J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye seems to be a deceptively predictable narrative. Book Review Digest does much to promote this idea as it condenses the plot into a few simple lines:

Just before Christmas young Holden Caulfield, knowing that he is to be dropped by his school, decides to leave early and not report home until he has to. He spends three days and nights in New York city [sic] and this is the...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Anne Marple （review date 18 September 1961）
   2. J. D. O'Hara （essay date Winter 1963-1964）
   3. Bernice and Sanford Goldstein （essay date Autumn 1966）
   4. Kerry McSweeney （essay date Spring 1978）
   5. Edwin Haviland Miller （essay date Winter 1982）
   6. Sanford Pinsker （essay date Winter 1986）
   7. Max F. Schulz （essay date 1987）
   8. Helen Weinberg （essay date 1987）
   9. John Wenke （essay date 1987）
   10. Terry Teachout （essay date September 1987）
   11. Joyce Rowe （essay date 1991）
   12. Peter Shaw （essay date 1991）
   13. Pamela Steinle （essay date 1991）
   14. Susan K. Mitchell （essay date December 1992）
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright

1. J. D. Salinger