The judge in the case of a Swedish book that some are calling the sequel to The Catcher in the Rye has read both books and claimed that, while the Swedish novel contains no photographic illustrations or images of Holden Caulfield, it is a copy of the character in that it is “a portrait by words.”

“60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye” by Fredrik Colting was meant to be published in the United States on September 15.  Recently, a ninety year old Salinger maintained his image as a hermit by filing a copyright infringement suit against the book, and subsequently refusing to appear in court.  Salinger and his lawyer claim that the book is meant to be read as a sequel to the original, published in 1951, but Colting claims that the book, which details Caulfield’s life as a 74-year-old man in a retirement home, is meant to be an exploration of the relationship between Salinger and Caulfield.

Salinger, who is now famous for emerging from silence only to set up legal action to protect his works, has long defended his famous character.  In his sixties, he was approached with the idea of adapting Catcher in the Rye into a film, which he called impossible, as he would be the only person right for the part of Caulfield, and was too far advanced in age to convince the audience.  Now, at the age of ninety and totally deaf, Salinger is asking the judge to prohibit the U.S. release of the perceived sequel to his opus, a move some are calling a book ban.  A final decision should be reached within the next two weeks.

In a 1980 interview with The Boston Globe, Salinger summed up his frustration with his constant fight against those wishing to reinvent and channel Caulfield by saying “There’s no more Holden Caulfield. Read the book again. It’s all there. Holden Caulfield is only a frozen moment in time.”