Monday, June 18, 2012

Book Club: Catcher in the Rye and As a Driven Leaf

Credit for this post goes to Altie. When she asked me to start a book club, I immediately remembered the first book I had to read for high school English class.

"Catcher in the Rye." This is for everyone who had to suffer along with me. 

Acher (Elisha ben Avuya) and Holden Caulfield. Or, as I like to think about it, "As a Driven Leaf" is the Jewish version of "Catcher in the "Rye." In both books, you have whiny, adolescent-type protagonists searching for inner meaning and truth while slowly exploding the world around them in a kvetchy, semi-random self-destructive way.
In case you can't tell, I've never liked either protagonist.  All that whining! Blech.

So why review? It's the books I don't like which are the most fun to write about.

1 comment:

  1. I've read the latter, not the former.

    I was annoyed with "As a Driven Leaf" because the author decided to meddle with history. Apparently Elisha ben Avuya, according to one source, had two daughters (as opposed to having a kvechy, barren wife) and the 10 HaRugei Malchus did not die at the same time, but over 300 years.

    Two big booboos, and I'm sure not the only ones.

    Yeah, Acher was really whiny in there. I would have preferred it if he had more dignity.

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