Maynard's story of her relationship with Salinger, At Home in the World, appeared in October 1998.
Main characters:
Holden Caulfield – 16-year-old boy, who has never been really interested in school. Actually he has almost always flunked all his subjects and now he has been kicked out of the school for the third time. He has no ambitions to life. He complains about the world and people around him a lot. He feels nobody (except maybe his little sister Phoebe) understands him and that he doesn’t understand others.He pretends to be someone else. He acts as if he were “a tough guy”, but in reality he is very sensitive. You can tell just by the things he is talking about. He concerns himself with such details that might be insignificant to others. On the other hand, he finds things that are serious for other people funny, because he sees the irony of it. He seems quite intelligent (even though his vocabulary is limited), but sometimes he acts as if he were younger. He asks needless questions and gives childish arguments. (For example when he asks the taxi driver where the ducks go when the lake freezes over)
He is rebellious but he still obeys some rules of good behavior. He swears a lot; however. Phoebe Caulfield – Holdens younger sister. She is only 10 years old but very mature. She is the only one who understands Holden and wants him to start think about his future life more. She is very cute and only in her company Holden doesn’t feel he has to hide behind the mask of “though guy”. When he is with Phoebe he is himself.
Minor characters:
Ward Strandlater – Holdens roommate at Pencey. He is older and bigger then Holden. He is obsessed with himself. He is also very opinionated. You have to agree with him all the time. He likes to date girls but he seems to only look forward to use them for sex. Robert Ackley – He lives next-door to Holden at Pencey. He is very messy and looks messy. He is quite strange because he seems to enjoy annoying people by his disgusting behavior. Jane Gallagher - She’s been Holdens friend since couple of years ago. She is really nice. Plot:
This novel is a first person narrative novel. The main character Holden Caulfield tells the novel. The first few chapters are about how the private school he attended “Gave him the axe.” for not applying himself in his classes after several warnings.
Holden was pretty upset about the whole deal because he knew that his parents would be disappointed with him for getting kicked out of another school.
That same night Holden got onto a fight with his roommate, now very angry Holden leaves the school earlier than he is supposed to.