I really like Catcher in the Rye...can anyone reccomend any other great books like it?

Question

Looking for a great classic read.

Answer 1

Frankly, I don't think there are any other books that quite belong in the same category as Catcher. Salinger's later novels aren't quite the same. I really like his short stories, published as Nine Stories, but only two or three fit with Catcher. My favorite is "For Esme, with Love and Squalor."

Of course, Catcher is a kind of modern take-off on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Another such book is Saul Bellow's Adventures of Augie March (1953), which deals a young man growing up in Chicago before WWII in a Yiddish-speaking community. It's a more traditional novel than Catcher, kinda like a modern Charles Dickens.

From 1967 on, a new form of "young adult" novels came about with the publication of S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders. For all practical purposes these were all responses to the real-life adolescence of Holden Caulfield. Besides Hinton, other prominent writers were Paul Zindel (The Pigman, for example), Robert Cormier (The Chocolate War, I Am the Cheese, and After the First Death), Chris Crutcher (Running Loose, Stotan!, Crazy Horse Electric Game), and Francesca Lia Block (focusing more on young women, like Weetzie Bat in a series of six books).

The most prominent author in this category now is the British novelist whose works are hyper-realistic and deal with young men on the edge. Melvin Burgess’s first American publication was Smack, a dark tale about two runaway teens whose lives are destroyed by heroin. Bloodtide, a very dark futurist novel, is set in a ravaged London in the near future, where two families of ganglords struggle for control of the city.

But I think one of the best American novels to draw upon Salinger's intensity and modern-day realism is Vision Quest by Terry Davis, about a high-school wrestler and his live-in girl friend. It was adapted into a fairly good film version with Matthew Modine.

Answer 2

I can think of three which i read as part of an adolescence and literature module at uni, around the same time as I read Catcher in the Rye. They may not be exactly like it, however they all explore the common theme of adolescence.
the rachael papers by Martin Amis
The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
Hope this helps!

Answer 3

Check out Franny and Zooey and Nine Stories, also by Salinger.

Other great coming of age stories include Twain's the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adv of Huck Finn

I agree, the Outsiders is amazing.

If you're looking for that type of writing, I'd check out About a Boy by Nick Hornby and anything else by him. He's really funny and a great writer and writes about people with crises haha. The only this is he hasn't influenced any murderers...but i think that's good thing haha

Answer 4

Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar
The protaganist is a little older and a girl, but she's out there.

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

A Clockwork Orange by Burgess. This is pretty political.

Answer 5

i think murders really like Catcher in the Rye too...........i heard that somewhere ha ha anyway try Island of the blue dolphins it's about a deserted island and castaways also The outsiders it's a 50's style book about a bunch of outcasts

Answer 6

You should read the book called Of mice and men. It's great.

Answer 7

all other books by JD Salinger.. like Franny & Zooey
or Ordinary People


btw Of Mice & Men sucked.

Answer 8

Hmmm another book about the struggles of youth and alienation?

*cricket sounds*

Not sure, but Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson rocks.

Answer 9

i think you would also like the book called the outsiders. its a really great book that has a similar character in it. ENJOY

Answer 10

"Of Mice and Men" was great. No accounting for (poor) taste, I reckon.

Try "To Kill a Mockingbird". Another classic.