"Catcher in the Rye" vs. "About a Boy"

The novels "Catcher in the Rye", and "About a Boy", are fundamentally very similar. They are very similar in theme, style, and setting; however, they also have fundamental differences. Nevertheless, the theme of isolation in the two novels is very similar.
The theme is the most similar in these books. In "Catcher in the Rye", the protagonist Holden Caulfield is a teenager who isolates himself from the rest of the world; because he believes everything is "phony". …