Saturday, April 24, 2010

Manhattan As Seen Through the Eyes of Holden Caulfield

Of course, the book's illustration makes you wonder. The sidewalks of New York?

(Only Wisconsin location:  UW-Madison Memorial Library)

Link to April 25 Los Angeles Times article, "Walking in Holden Caulfield's footsteps through Manhattan".

Link to photo gallery.

Excerpt:   Holden Caulfield was a flâneur. That's not generally how we think of him, this archetype of adolescent alienation, this detester of phonies, this poor little lost boy whose voice — by turns knowing, childlike, cynical and bereft — drives J.D. Salinger's iconic 1951 novel, "The Catcher in the Rye." Yet, from the moment, about a quarter of the way through the book, he arrives by train at Manhattan's now-demolished original Pennsylvania Station building, he is our guide on one of the 20th century's great literary walking tours.

Link to January 28, 2010, New York Times article, "Walking in Holden's Footsteps".  (Includes an interactive map.)

Excerpt:    Trace Holden Caulfield's perambulations around Manhattan in "The Catcher in the Rye" to places like the Edmont Hotel, where Holden had an awkward encounter with Sunny the hooker; the lake in Central Park, where he wondered about the ducks in winter; and the clock at the Biltmore, where he waited for his date.

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