the worst part

"IF you really want to hear about it, the worst part is…" with this line, Salinger not only begins The Catcher in the Rye, but as Richard Ohmann argues, reveals the intention of this book. It seems like Richard Ohmann and Holden Caufield might have a lot to talk about. That is, if Holden could stand to listen to his "Ivy League voice" (Ohmann is a Harvard man.) Nevertheless, Holden's dissatisfaction with the world around him is from the injustices he can't help but perceive everywhere he goes. People are phony, they've been cursed with halitosis or acne or a boring personality. Ohmann might make similar claims about the critics who commented on Catcher in the Rye. Not only did the criticism surrounding catcher fall victim to an academic insularity inherent to the New Criticism that was then in vogue, but the commentary on Holden's angst as typically adolescent was patronizing, and would have been exactly what Holden himself completely detested. Ohmann insists that a Marxist reading is the most accurate, if not only, way to interpret Catcher in the Rye.
Having read Catcher at about 13 or 14, I was excited to return to it, but chose to read the Ohmann article before re-reading the book. I was surprised at how much of Catcher I remembered, and despite my new awareness of the possible implications and extant criticism, I found myself falling in love with Holden all over again. Life isn’t fair, it's funny and sad. But it's beautiful. And maybe being older has made me even more aware of this. Or maybe I'm a Holden all over again, especially as someone at a new school, with classes full of characters and a system that make me crazy. But it's not about the angst, or the specific language we use to express it. It's about what is the "worst part," and how we can work to make it better. In the meantime, although it certainly won't solve a damn thing, and is totally phony and bourgeois, a train ride to New York and some cocktails sound pretty good.