“Some classics feel like a warm handshake from the past. Others feel like a homework assignment that never ended. Catcher in the Rye? It’s the latter—iconic, sure, but also the literary equivalent of listening to someone sigh for 200 pages.”

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Okay, I Said It: Catcher in the Rye Is a Classic… But Is It Overrated?

Let’s get one thing straight: I love books. I cry in coffee shops over paperback endings. I defend long, meandering Russian novels like they’re my sport team. But every now and then, you run into a “masterpiece” that leaves you squinting at the back cover, wondering if you missed the secret meeting where everyone agreed it was genius.

For me? That’s The Catcher in the Rye.

Don’t throw tomatoes yet! Let me explain with the enthusiasm of someone who really wanted to love it.

I get it. Holden Caulfield is supposed to be the original angsty teen. The patron saint of “you don’t know me.” But reading it as an adult (and honestly, even as a teen), I kept wanting to shake him. Yes, the world is full of “phonies,” Holden. It absolutely is. But at a certain point, you have to look in the mirror and realize that complaining about everyone else isn’t a personality—it’s a traffic jam you’re choosing to sit in.

The book has heart. The moment with his little sister, Phoebe, on the carousel is genuinely lovely. But do we need 200 pages of mumbling about lost gloves and cab drivers to get there? I kept waiting for the plot to start like a kettle that never quite boils. It’s mood over movement, and that mood is “annoyed.”

Here’s my hot take: Catcher is a classic because it captured a feeling (teenage alienation) before anyone else did. But overrated? Absolutely. It’s the literary equivalent of the first smartphone—groundbreaking for its time, but you wouldn’t want to use it today.

So if you love Holden, I salute you. But I’ll be over here rereading The Great Gatsby, where at least the phonies throw better parties. 😉

What’s your “overrated classic”? Tell me I’m wrong in the comments!