J.D Salinger has died at the age of 91. Like countless teens, I read Catcher in the Rye and found its stance of irreconcilable romantic opposition to the compromise and artifice of modern life / sulky adolescent radginess at the world (either/and/or) very appealing. As many have observed, if I read it again now in my 30s I would perhaps find the huffing narrator pretty unappealing. But that is not a criticism. For a novel to capture the thwarted idealism of the essentially solipsistic teen mindset is a great achievement, for it to repel others may even be a signifier of that achievement. How refreshing as well for an author, almost uniquely, to reject the media treadmill which can degrade so more often than it enlightens. Salute.