The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

 

This was one of the favorite books of my high school English teacher, a man who condemned Jane Austen as an "insipid romance writer" and regaled us with tales about pissing in people's mailboxes as a youth. He also told me that I was a terrible writer, and that I should be in remedial English because my grasp of the written word was "subpar."

I think that tells you basically everything you need to know about the man and this book. If you go around seeking out phonies, you might want to start with a mirror.

P.S. As if that weren't enough torture, I had to read this book AGAIN and the second teacher who made me suffer through this was Catholic and made us say "gee-dee" instead of goddamn every time it appeared on the page, and we had to skip any chapters that she deemed "inappropriate."

P.P.S. No, I didn't go to a Catholic school.

1 out of 5 stars