Books

The Wisdom of Holden Caulfield

Beneath all the alienation, The Catcher in the Rye, which turns 75 this year, has a surprisingly hopeful—and ethical—outlook.

First published in The Atlantic on July 7, 2026.

by Lily Meyer, The Atlantic

July 9, 2026 | reading time: 9 Min.

The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger’s classic of adolescent alienation, turns 75 this summer, though it has the cast-iron reputation of a much older book. Just as Moby-Dick is canonically about whales, Catcher is canonically about phonies. Its narrator, Holden Caulfield, is tormented—though I likely don’t have to tell you this—by his awareness that society rewards and revolves around fakers.