J.D. Salinger dead at 91

To generations of men and women in the years after World War II, “The Catcher in the Rye” was the singular, tell-it-like-it-is story about the mind-set of a sensitive youth: cynical yet romantic; disdainful of hypocrisy, social convention and conformity; self-conscious and uncomfortable in his own skin; confused and pathetic but also loveable.