On Ordinary People

Reading Judith Guest's Ordinary People it seems to be a version of Catcher in the Rye, approaching the subject of youth and mental instability. As it is unclear what exactly happens to Holden Caufield at the end, it is revealed that he is in a mental institution. Similarly, the character of Conrad Jarrett spends time in a mental institution after a suicide attempt. Rather than think of Ordinary People as picking up where Catcher in the Rye left off, it works better to understand the novel as being from the parents point of you. Where Catcher in the Rye was first person, Ordinary People takes on many different perspectives through third person narration. While Conrad does have a voice in the novel, the text seems to focus on the parents fear for his safety. Catcher in the Rye on the other hand, was more how Holden was dealing with his own issues. Alienation and Rebellion for Holden was a way to deal with control in a world where he had none.

Both novels deal with Lee Edelman's version of futurism, or an interest in the future that is centered in the symbol of the child. They reach for a stability of normativity that keeps being undermined by the death drive symbolized in the memories of the two main characters dead brothers and actualized in their withdrawl from their interests, friends and families.

While the unfolding of Salinger's story feels much more organic in the unraveling of Holden's mind, Guest drops us in media res into the problem the Jarrett's refuse to deal with nor acknowledge.

Is one a better version? No, but right now I would say Catcher in the Rye is more engaging. And however one feels about the character of Holden Caufield, there is more at least more about him to have an opinion on. Guest gets inside the heads of her characters, but sometimes even 2 dimensional works appear well-drawn.