Book review thing - the catcher in the rye

Okay so the book I’m reading is The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. I’m not that far into it, so I haven’t gotten to the “good parts” yet. But from what I’ve read, I know it’s about this teenager named Holden Caulfield. He’s basically the kind of guy who slacks in school. He never does any work. As a result, he got kicked out of four schools and just recently from the one he was in. No one understands him. His teachers tried cooperating with him, but he just isn’t committed to school. In his head, he’s still a child. He doesn’t realize that he has responsibilities and expectations. He either isn’t aware or simply doesn’t care. Maybe he’s gone through some stuff. Maybe something happened that affected his view of life. I don’t think he was always like this. His eleven year old brother did die when he was thirteen, maybe that could’ve been a reason. That could really affect someone, especially since they were really close friends. Or maybe it could be things that happen in school. For example, he was talking to his old history teacher a couple weeks after he got kicked out of school. His teacher said,

“’Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules.’
‘Yes, sir. I know it is. I know it.’
Game, my ass. Some game. If you get on the side where all the hot-shots are, then it's a game, all right - I'll admit that. But if you get on the other side, where there aren't any hot-shots, then what's a game about it? Nothing. No game.”

I’m not so sure what this means, but take a stab at it. Maybe it means that if you’re a hot-shot, or a popular kid everyone knew and liked, then life could be fun. Like a game. But if you don’t fall in to that category, then life is all dull and lonely. There is no game. The people who do know him, know him from the negative things he does, or the negative ways he acts. Nobody ever notices the nice things about him. That’s what he said, “people never notice anything.”