The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger’s beloved novel, once banned and full of frank four-letter words, will continue to be assigned to high school reading lists this year.
But Anne Trubek, a professor of English at Oberlin College, argues that it’s time to update Salinger’s coming-of-age tale.
“It was published in 1951 and it’s not so contemporary anymore,” Trubek tells Scott Simon. “I think that most American teenagers will find it rather tame and sort of laughable the things that were once considered so controversial.”
Listen to full piece on NPR.
watch out
Don’t get any books that use the word “scrotum” or imply that teenagers might have sex. That’s just not literature. Any of it.
Perhaps the Jim Neighbors autobiography?
Seriously, with parents set on freak-out mode about books and banning stories getting news time, what do they think will happen when someone starts to make the modern day “Catcher” mandatory reading? How about that Tom Wolfe book about college sex and drinking? That’ll go over like a dead skunk in a punch bowl.
Jim Neighbors
We all know he was gay. So cross that one off the list.
Perhaps a biography of Jesus !
Perhaps the Jim Neighbors
Perhaps the Jim Neighbors autobiography?
1982: Doris Day: Her Own Story
There is nothing that cannot be found offensive by someone, somewhere.