Holden Caulfield's Voice

J.D. Salinger's death didn't mean that the tightly controlled protection of his infamous The Catcher in the Rye would end. There's still no commercially available version of The Catcher in the Rye available via audiobook. And, other adaptations and derivatives have also been rejected.

But, an audio library version is available (first recorded in 1970 and then re-recorded in 1999), according to the Washington Examiner. This version can be played via library devices (which play at a different speed than standard devices), but it's out there: an intriguing discovery, not only from an access standpoint, but also because it offers a unique perspective of J.D. Salinger's famous work. You can listen to Holden Caulfield's voice (the version offered up by Ray Hagen, which may be the only voice associated with Holden Caulfield in audiobook format).

What do you learn from the novel--audio or text? Perhaps, we derive more than we know (or pretend to imagine). Perhaps, it's as we find in Chapter 24: "Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them--if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry."

What did you learn? Have you listened to the audio-library version? How do you imagine the voice of Holden Caulfield?