Although J.D. Salinger wrote a number of short stories, The Catcher in the Rye remains his only novel and his most famous work. To encapsulate the significance of Salinger's book would be to openly court understatement; suffice it to say that Catcher has become the seminal "coming of age" novel that readers of every new generation return to again and again.
Catcher is, of course, practically synonymous with its lead character, Holden Caulfield. An unreliable narrator going through a difficult time in his life, Holden challenges readers to explore themes of authenticity, loneliness, creativity, life and death, depression, innocence, and growing up.
