Check out Richard Bowes' thoughts on Catcher in the Rye, and why no book can survive assigned reading.
Though it wasn't my favorite school assigned reads (The Great Gatsby and Cry the Beloved Country are tied for that spot), I definitely enjoyed Catcher. In what I thought a strange turn of events, however, when I was teaching, most of my students didn't identify with Holden and his drinking and swearing rebellion. They found him whiny and unlikable.