Catch-22
Ratings722
Average rating4
Overall, nope. I read other reviews and some of the introduction: this is not a great american novel. One of few books with that distinction that I absolutely cannot understand why people love it so much. It is too repetitious for me. Comedy of the absurd can only last for so long. The section where the explanation of what “Catch-22” means is all I really needed (I read it in someone's GoodReads review). Make it a short story in a magazine and it wouldn't have caught on so you make it a book. Not for me.
Update August 27, 2016: Yet, finished Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea. The short story/novella can resonate.
I read the greatest satirical piece called The Good Soldier Svejk, long back and was amazed by the wit and callousness it displayed. And then I heard Catch 22 being compared with it. I decided to read it then. But I couldn't get hold of a copy since it was before ebooks became popular.
Meanwhile I read another novel by Heller titled Something Happened and was thoroughly dissappointed by it. It took another couple of years and recommendations from online forums to try Catch 22.
My verdict: The second greatest satirical piece that I read...
I had forgotten I tried to read this until I stumbled across Lori's review, which was identical with my experience
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6050831
Thoroughly enjoyable; deceptively comedic. Heller's masterful writing kept me laughing, even at things I shouldn't be laughing at. Great critique of war and its intricacies, absolutely succeeded at creating a minor crisis of conscious once I was finished. I found the characters extremely compelling.
Bellissimo racconto divertente e anche profondo sulla stupidita' della guerra e sulle economie basate su di essa. Scritto da un ex militare. 8
Summary: Set during World War II, this story centers on a bombardier named Yossarian and his companions. It portrays the lunacy of war, sometimes by using humor and sometimes by exposing just how atrocious it can be. The novel can be confusing at times because it does not proceed in regular chronological order.
Intriguing in some areas. The back and forth was funny but got annoying towards the end. Or it’s just me trying to finish the book.
ask me for a better opinion when I get a larger print copy of this book because I'm sure I missed a lot because of this teeeeny academic font
If you're into satire, quirky characters, and government bureaucracy, this is your jam!
Yossarian is a neurotic bombardier who doesn't want to fly any more missions because he's scared of dying. He makes frequent visits to the hospital, where he fakes a liver issue so he can lie in bed all day. Then he decides to try to convince his superiors that he's crazy (and he might really be), because anyone who is crazy isn't allowed to fly. All they have to do is request to be grounded due to their mental health. But the catch is that anyone who does submit such a request is deemed to be sane because only a sane person would care about their safety. Heller's book is full of those types of catches, paradoxes, and circular reasoning.
This is the funniest novel I've ever read. Every page has laugh-out-loud moments and witticisms. Satire is very difficult to do well and Heller masters it here.
The story is told in a nonlinear fashion, with scenes connected by free association and the pieces slowly coming together to form a narrative. But even so, it's more a collection of crazy occurrences than a strong plot and no character really has any arc. Instead, the many characters exist for comic relief, to further the story, and to make satirical points. Every character is crazy in one way or another, which is why there's another catch to trying to get out of missions: Crazy people must be able to go on missions, because no one else will.
With stronger character arcs, this might be a perfect novel, but even without it, it's a timeless classic and one of the great American novels.
I had always heard it was one of the masterpieces of US 20th literature and I can only agree. Reading Catch-22 during a time when the world is on the brink of another mayor global conflict made it particularly enlightening. A satirical nival full of at times nonsense and surreal situations that should not keep the reader blind to the central theme, personal integrity and how individuals should challenge institutions and governments in particular in times of conflict, the absurdity of some wars and how men are cannon fodder for the elites.
“The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he is on.”
“It doesn't make a damned bit of difference who wins the war to someone who's dead.”
“[They] agreed that it was neither possible nor necessary to educate people who never questioned anything.” “
Insanity is contagious.”
This was shit. It doesn't hit my good spot at all. I'm a very character-driven person, you know? If the plot is bad, I can sometimes get by if the characters are still good, but these characters are so many, and they're all unlikeable, they're all the same, they do the same shit, and they know the same people. I can't read books like this! That's not interesting to me! It's so clearly satire, but it's not funny to me. It's just depressing and frustrating to read. I need hope! This doesn't give it. I need enjoyable characters (not necessarily likeable ones) but this doesn't give it. And finally, it's just such a fucking drag. There was absolutely no reason for this book to be longer than 300 pages. None. Silch. Nu-uh. It's too long, and it's hard to keep tabs on which character you're with, and it's entirely character-driven but without character development (because it's satire...), and I really wish I hadn't needed to waste my precious time reading a book that wasn't suited to my tastes whatsoever, when I'm busy enough as it is right now. Because all this book did was frustrate me. It was just. so. frustrating. Never again do I want to think about this book.
9/10
I've been putting this book off for a while now. But I shouldn't have doubted Heller and Catch-22 lived up to all the hype. It was extremely funny and poignant. Probably the best military satire I've ever read. It pokes fun at war and the military in general. At times it is so ridiculous and yet believable. The absurd and somehow relatable characters were delightful to read.
It was kinda funny reading this immediately after Starship Troopers, which was very much about putting yourself on the line for the good of society. Here we have a book which questions whether it makes any sense to the individual to do that, especially when inspiring leadership is nothing but a fantasy. This is a predecessor of MAS*H and Black Adder goes Forth.
“From now on I'm thinking only of me.”
Major Danby replied indulgently with a superior smile: “But, Yossarian, suppose everyone felt that way.”
“Then,” said Yossarian, “I'd certainly be a damned fool to feel any other way, wouldn't I?”
“Man was matter. Drop him out of a window and he'll fall. Set fire to him and he'll burn. Bury him and he'll rot, like other kinds of garbage.”
“The enemy,” retorted Yossarian with weighted precision, “is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on, and that includes Colonel Cathcart. And don't you forget that, because the longer you remember it, the longer you might live.”
I first read this book in the 1970s, I think, and I was impressed by it then, but I wasn't much inclined to reread it; maybe I read it two or three times in the 1970s and then left it on the shelf.Trying it again in 2022, my initial reaction was that it was funnier than I remembered, to the extent that it reminded me of [b:The Importance of Being Earnest 24949945 The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1522220520l/24949945.SY75.jpg 649216], which I was reading just recently. Both Wilde and Heller write dialogue that seems crazy and yet makes a strange kind of sense.However, Wilde's play is concise and remains funny throughout. Heller's novel goes on and on and gradually becomes more depressing than funny. I was glad to reach the end at last, and put it down with some relief.How to evaluate it? I still think it's a good novel of its kind, but it's not really my kind of novel, and I'm not sure whether I'll ever read it again. On that basis, I might give it two stars: my normal rating for a book that I'm unlikely to reread. However, the early chapters are funny, and the book has made a lasting impression on me, so I'll be generous and give it three stars.21st century readers should be aware that this novel was written in the 1950s, published in 1961, and is set in the early 1940s. The characters are all male or female without complications, and heterosexual—despite the misleading first two sentences. Almost all the women are regarded and treated as sex objects, and many of them are in fact prostitutes; I suppose this is the traditional military view of women encountered in wartime.
Tough book for me to get through. The audio version made me think of the movie “Airplane” with the Major Major Major... I know it's satyrical humor, but the struggle was real.
I tried to read this years ago and found it laborious to the point of apathy. This time was different. Maybe it was my military service. Maybe the amount of cynicism I've contracted since that first attempt. Or maybe it's just dumb luck, but I found this book more delightful this time around.
Not entirely delightful. Some parts swing into the realm of meandering and uninteresting but on the whole this was enjoyable.
The parts that were hilarious were 100% slap-your-knee funny. Lots of it is dark. It's all dry and the satire bites hard. I can see myself referencing this in many ways in the future and recommending it to the right person will be a joy.
If you are not born with the English tongue, just know that if you understand the next words, you'll be fine: Scintillating, Coalesced, Sullen, Delectable, Pulpit, Coveted, Belligerent, Gamboling, Nosegay, Countenance, Prodigiously, Trepidation, Circumspect, Abrasions, Abreast, Consternation, Scornfully, Petulantly, Domitably, Corrugated, Ominously, Awning, Invidiously,... Because these words will be the average difficulty for the entire book.
I had to check at least 6 words per page. But the thing is that I added a lot of words to my lexicon now. So persevere, as the chaplain would say to you.
This was an exhilarating novel, a rollercoaster for the eye and mind, but not suited for me. I liked the “war is chaos” theme, but it was too much for me.
Still one of the most unique books I've read.