Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
10 Fictional Characters People Need to Stop Idolizing
Holden Caulfield
All the disaffected teenage girls love The Catcher in the Rye’s Holden Caulfield, and all the disaffected teenage boys want to be him. The good news is that while he may be on his way to becoming a grown-up crank, this prep-school refugee seems a bit too smart and self-aware to turn out like Travis Bickle. The bad news is that, by his own admission, he can’t stand other people, acts far younger than his age (which is only 17), and is having a nervous breakdown. It’s bad enough that high-school kids aspire to Holden’s level of self-destructive alienation; the many adults who hang onto him as a model of righteous rebellion seem to have missed the fact that teenage angst has an expiration date.
Read about the others at Flavorpill
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