166 Quiz Answer

The answer to this week’s quiz is The Catcher in the Rye, a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger.  Originally published for adults, it has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes of teenage angst and alienation.

(Also for Three Word Wednesday and ABC Wednesday: "P" is for "Paul")

Here’s this week’s Berownial quiz question.

It’s about a book that had a total sale of more than 65 million copies; over a quarter of a million copies are still sold each year.

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is: name the book.

My friend Paul recently told me about a dream he had, a dream that seemed to me to be pure surrealism.

In his dream, he explained, he could see quite clearly that there was before him a field of rye grain, a field that was almost covered with a huge group of children, playing and having fun.  They were of different ages and sizes; nothing special about any of them, they were just a lot of kids.

But somehow, and he didn't know how, Paul believed he had been put in charge of them, like a lifeguard at a beach.

It seems they were in danger, or at least the possibility of danger existed for them.  And he was the one who was supposed to save them.

As I say, it was a very strange dream.  He went on to add that at that time he knew (and maybe cared) little about children.  He rarely thought about them.  But the situation made him, still in that dream, nervous and anxious.  He felt he was acting like a penitent, being punished for some imaginary sin.  He was resistant to the idea because saving them would be a huge responsibility.

As the dream progressed, he learned what the danger was.

It seems that the field they were playing on was next to a steep cliff.  It was obvious that while they were cavorting about they might possibly fall over the cliff.

And the dream made clear that he, Paul, was supposed to catch them!

It was evidently a really scary experience for him.

Then suddenly it occurred to me that he had been influenced by a book that was quite famous some time back.  And perhaps now you can pay tribute to the book by giving us its name?

(Also submitted to Sunday Scribblings)