Salinger wrote a letter to Esquire in 1945: "The men who have been in this war deserve some sort of trembling melody rendered without embarrassment or regret," (Esquire). In 1951, Salinger delivered just that.

The Catcher in the Rye is not a war novel, but a riveting amalgam of the disillusionments and malcontent that Salinger likely incubated throughout his young life. Depression, trauma, and loss of innocence are brought to a point so fine that the book's publication erupted critical and popular disagreement on a scale that remains unmatched today.