Comin' through the Rye

"Julie Johnson, who taught Mr. Salinger’s novel over three decades at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Ill., cited similar reactions. 'Holden’s passivity is especially galling and perplexing to many present-day students,' she wrote in an e-mail message. 'In general, they do not have much sympathy for alienated antiheroes; they are more focused on distinguishing themselves in society as it is presently constituted than in trying to change it.'"

In a June New York Times article, Jennifer Schuessler reports on a decline in popularity of J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.