What are your thoughts on catcher in the Rye? Was the protagonist gay?

Was the protagonist gay? And also I read a critical analysis of the novel. Was the protagonist molested? I can't tell.

• I think the correct way to phrase that second question is, "Was the protagonist a flit"?

  Holden%20Caulfield

• I never got all the fuss about this book.

• No I don't think he was gay. He was mentally ill and probably bi-polar and did not take medication. Also, his young brother's death obviously sent him into a deep depression. He was having a nervous breakdown during the whole book.

  Anonymous

• He was mad because his parents had him genitally mutilated.

  uncut%20troll

• Never heard of it.

  Tig Notaro

• r3, are you serious? Using the DSM to discredit literary creations. HMMM. Hamlet was histrionic, I'm supposing. Bartelby the Scrivener, an aspergers with defiance disorder? Gregor Samsa, a mood disordered narcissist?

• No, he and the author were raging heterosexuals. Holden waxes about his lust for the ladies. Read Edmund White's semi-autobiographical novels if you want a gay Holden.

• I don't normally read antique fiction but that sounds interesting, r7. What's a good place to start with Edmund White? r6, what do you mean by "discredit"?

• I don't think Holden Caulfield was gay but he did have weird fetishes. His obsession with his roommate's fingernails/toenail clippings struck me as odd and slightly neurotic when I first read the book in high school. I also think that Holden secretly got off from being admired by his English teacher/tutor who was obviously gay.

  Anonymous

• Not R7, but "The Beautiful Room is Empty" or "Boy's Own Story". After that, "The Farewell Symphony" and "The Married Man". IMO these four books are the most characteristic of his fictionalized autobiographical style. My favorite is "Forgetting Elens", his first, but it's not to everyone's taste. His other works are flawed, but all good.

• Elena^

  R10, I can't type or proofread.

• r10, how about the Noah York character in Leave Myself Behind? Greatest gay character ever IMO.

• "Nocturnes for the King of Naples" is also really good.