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A Reader's Companion to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye
enlarge	Author: Peter G. Beidler Creator: Calloway M'Cloud Publisher: Coffeetown Press Category: Book List Price: ~~$24.95~~ Buy New: $24.33 as of 11/20/2009 20:02 PST details You Save: $0.62 (2%) New (3) Used (8) from $24.33 Seller: Amazon.com Media: Paperback Pages: 258 Number Of Items: 1 Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9 Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 0.7 ISBN: 1603810005 Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9781603810005 ASIN: 1603810005 Publication Date: September 15, 2008 Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours


Similar Items: Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (Reader's Guides) The Catcher in the Rye The Catcher in the Rye Literature Guide (Secondary Solutions LLC Teacher Guide) The Catcher in the Rye (Cliffs Notes) J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye: A Routledge Guide (Routledge Guides to Literature)


Editorial Reviews: Product Description Peter G. Beidler’s Reader’s Companion is an indispensable guide for teachers, students, and general readers who want fully to appreciate Salinger’s perennial bestseller. Now nearly six decades old, The Catcher in the Rye contains references to people, places, books, movies, and historical events that will puzzle many twenty-first-century readers. Beidler’s guide provides some 250 explanations to help readers make sense of the culture through which Holden Caulfield stumbles as he comes of age. It provides a map showing the various stops in Holden’s Manhattan odyssey. Of particular interest to readers whose native language is not English is the glossary of more than a hundred terms, phrases, and slang expressions. In his introductory essay, “Catching The Catcher in the Rye,” Beidler discusses such topics as the three-day time line for the novel, the way the novel grew out of two earlier-published short stories, the extent to which the novel is autobiographical, what Holden looks like, and the reasons for the enduring appeal of the novel. The many photographs in the Reader’s Companion give fascinating glimpses into the world that Holden has made famous. Beidler also provides discussion of some of the issues that have engaged scholars down through the years: the meaning of Holden’s red hunting hat, whether Holden writes his novel in an insane asylum, Mr. Antolini’s troubling actions, and Holden’s close relationship with his sister and his two brothers. Readers of A Reader’s Companion to J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye will wonder how they managed without it before.

Customer Reviews: Terrific study--answers some questions people have asked for decades. September 24, 2009 Paul B. (Seattle, WA United States) In A Reader's Companion to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, Beidler shows, on the basis of internal evidence, that the action of the novel takes place in mid-December, 1949, and not, as some scholars have assumed, in 1950 (see p. 1). Beidler is the first to identify the movie that the prostitute Sunny refers to in chapter 13 of The Catcher in the Rye. She says that in the movie a boy falls off a boat. Beidler identifies the movie as Captains Courageous, starring Spencer Tracy. The reference is important because Sunny says that Holden looks like the boy who fell off the boat. Beidler shows (see p. 28) a still of the boy,played by child-actor Freddie Bartholomew. That shows that Sunny thinks Holden looks like a little boy, not the tough guy he is trying to be. Beidler discusses the influence that Salinger's book has had on later fiction, such as Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep. He also shows the way Salingere's novel has shaped several modern films, such as Conspiracy Theory, Finding Forrester, Winter Passing, Chasing Holden, and The Good Girl. Beidler discusses the extent to which Holden is a disguised self-portrait of Salinger himself, as well as the revelations about Salinger made by his live-in girl friend Joyce Maynard in At Home in the World and his daughter Margaret A. Salinger in Dream Catcher. For a reproduction of the 1961 TIME cover painting of Salinger, see Beidler, p. 6. Beidler shows how Salinger's conception of Holden grew from the early portraits of him in published short stories like "I'm Crazy" (published in Collier's in 1945). "Wudga" and "Tryna" Explained June 20, 2009 Dave (Olympic Peninsula, USA) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful A Reader's Companion to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye Knowing Salinger's celebrated novel as well as I do, I was eager to get hold of Peter G. Beidler's "Reader's Companion" from the time I first heard about it. It was waiting for me when I got home a week ago Friday, and I settled in for a relaxed weekend's fun read. Beidler did not disappoint; I was impressed with both his comprehensive familiarity with the scholarship pertaining to "Catcher" and his down-to-earth, nuts-and-bolts approach to Holden Caulfield's sad but potentially fulfilling life. Reading Beidler reminded me that competent criticism is a lot of hard work. I know "The Catcher" as well as anyone except maybe the author of this reader's guide, having taught it probably 20 times in the course of 15 years, and having read most of it aloud to my remedial and English language learning sections at one time or another. I also taught it for eight years in my school's only advanced placement literature class, which gave me the opportunity to help students conceptualize the style as well as the substance of the novel, for "The Catcher in the Rye" is certainly about the former as much as it is the latter, as it is one of the last century's most significant stylistic breakthroughs. Besides reading the book many times, Peter Beidler also appears to have read every book, magazine article, and scholarly journal piece ever written about Salinger's masterwork or about Salinger himself. His analysis quotes many of these, and I wish more of them had adopted his plain-spoken approach rather than indulging themselves with elaborate and far-fetched theories, such as suggesting that when Holden and his sister Phoebe are passing his red hunting hat back and forth, that this "signal(s) not merely exchanges of fixed hunter/catcher prey/caught roles, but also rebirth through these role changes" (p. 81). Dealing with this kind of stuff is all in critic's day's work, I suppose. I was especially taken with the locator map of Manhattan (figure 17), and the ESL guide to English idioms and Salinger's phonetic spellings of colloquial mispronunciations, appended to the end of the main body of notes. It would have been easier for me to teach Salinger to native Spanish speakers if they'd had ready access to the meanings of exotic words like "tryna" (as when Holden's first cab driver of the weekend asks him, "Whatcha tryna do bud, kid me?") and "wudga" (as in "Wudga say?" spoken by one of the bimbos from Seattle Holden met in the Lavender Room). What I enjoyed most, however, was Beidler's identification of the movies Holden or the novel's other characters allude to, sometimes vaguely. For example, he names "Captains Courageous" as the movie that Sunny (the dull-witted prostitute with whom Holden pursues a failed liason) was talking about when she compared Holden with that high-pitched little waif Freddy Bartholomew, the child actor who starred in it, although she couldn't remember Bartholemew's name. For my money, however, Beidler's i.d.-ing the ridiculous and maudlin melodramatic film Holden sees (and pans hilariously) at Radio City Music Hall late in the novel as "Random Harvest" is this guide's crowning touch. The late-40's movie starred Ronald Coleman and Greer Garson, fairly creaks with overblown sentimentality and, as chance would have it, won the "best picture" Oscar the year it came out. I have always wanted to know what movie that was. And I'm sure that any unanswered questions anyone else has about "The Catcher in the Rye" will be answered here. A Must Have- for Teachers and Students! November 11, 2008 Sue M. Butler (Seattle, Washington, USA) I loved this book. Reviewed by Sue Butler, Adolescent Literacy Consultant, Seattle Public Schools There is something for everyone in Peter Beidler's guide to Salinger's classic 1951 novel. It has detailed explanatory notes, photographs of places referred to in the novel, a map of Manhattan showing stops along Holden's journey, explanations of the movies he mentions, glossaries of words, phrases, and idiomatic sayings--all served up with gleeful humor. Beidler, who obviously loves The Catcher in the Rye, shares his enthusiasm with all who read his guide. This reader's companion will be useful for students who need help understanding the culture of the 1950's. It will be indispensable for readers whose native language is not English, or who struggle with complex, ironic, or culturally unfamiliar texts. And of course they will love the photo of bosom of the "squaw" in the diorama in New York City's American Museum of Natural History. Holden says all the little kids who visit the museum "wanted to sneak a look at it." Thanks to Beidler's Companion, we all get to sneak that peek. But we also get a glimpse into many other fascinating crevices in Salinger's novel. This reader's companion belongs in all high school and college libraries. It will give everyone writing a paper on The Catcher in the Rye a leg up.

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