J. D. Salinger, 91

[Kasept]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...012803177.html

J.D. Salinger, 91, a celebrated author and enigmatic recluse whose 1951 novel "The Catcher in the Rye" became an enduring anthem of adolescent angst and youthful rebellion and a classic of 20th-century American literature, has died at his home in Cornish, N.H. The author's son, in a statement from the author's literary representative, confirmed the death to the Associated Press. Mr. Salinger died Wednesday, according to the AP, but no cause of death was immediately reported.

To generations of men and women in the years after World War II, "The Catcher in the Rye" was the singular, tell-it-like-it-is story about the mind-set of a sensitive youth: cynical yet romantic; disdainful of hypocrisy, social convention and conformity; self-conscious and uncomfortable in his own skin; confused and pathetic but also loveable.

The novel is about the adventures and misadventures of a disillusioned 16-year-old who knows he is about to be expelled from his boarding school, Pencey Prep, and decides to run away instead. Over three days in New York City, he has a run of weird encounters with taxi drivers, nuns, an elevator man, three girls from Seattle, a prostitute and a former teacher. In his eyes, the world is controlled and dominated by "phonies," whom he cannot abide, and he struggles with limited success to come to terms with love, sex and, ultimately, himself. In an encounter with his kid sister, Phoebe, he finds affection and salvation.

In the more than half-century since the novel's publication, its protagonist, Holden Caulfield, has joined the ranks of such literary legends as F. Scott Fitzgerald's Jay Gatsby and Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn as a folk hero of American fiction, with near-universal name recognition.