Teenage angst set in a 1940's dazzling New York, where the hero is dirtier than the cocktails, as reliable as British trains, and in a whole world of trouble.
I ain’t gunna lie to you lovelies; I love books like Lord Byron loved coitum plenum et optabilem. (See I can do high brow shit and not just jokes about geek love and drugs, although that is my bread and butter.) But such love cannot be contained, hence 'Book Crushes' was birthed from my obsessive spine cracking grubby mind.
These are my favourite and best books. Books I know off by heart, books I've looked lovingly at over a candlelit table, books I plan on being buried with. Deep blue shit.
Title:
Author:
Date of Birth:
July 16, 1951
Round up:
Sixteen year old Holden Caulfield, describes the strange events that happen to him in New York just before the Christmas of 1949.
Why it’s great:
Any book that has the dubious honour of being the most censored book in the United States has got my attention. But it is more than just a collection curse words from the 40's. (Although I have been trying to get the word 'Crumby' back into fashion.)
Holden Caulfield is the embodiment of the teenage experience. The power of Catcher in the Rye is that although I know J.D Salinger created this character, I can't see the 32-year-old writer on the page. It is only Holden that exists. An incredible skill which makes reading this book more of wading though a troubled mind than a past time, something I hope to emulate in my work.
Side note; his depiction of New York in the 40's, makes me want to wear sparkles in murky nightclubs and have men offer to light my smokes for me. Oh to go back to the good old days of low wattage bulbs and lung cancer.
Best time to read:
Before you're hormones have evened out and you've lost you're edgy teenage angst.
Dinner Party Prat Fact:
J.D Salinger, was into all sorts of strange mind messes; Christian Science, homeopathy, Edgar Cayce, need I say more? Okay one more; Dianetics (also known as the king of crazy town: Scientology).
Best Quote:
"It's such a stupid question, in my opinion. I mean how do you know what you're going to do till you do it? The answer is, you don't. I think I am, but how do I know? I swear it's a stupid question."
In a word:
Ambiguous
SAVE YOURSELF IT'S THE MARCH OF THE HASHTAGS