From the Bookshelf of The Reading Challenge Group…

Catch-22

Joseph Heller

Start date: January 1, 2014

Finish date: January 31, 2014

Discussion: Group Read Archive 2014-16

Why we're reading this: Genre Group Read - Jan 2014 (Historical
[close] Genre Group Read - Jan 2014 (Historical

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Group Read Archive 2014-16

Genre Group Read (Humour) - December 2016 - You Are Not So Smart
By Allison , Quest Hound · 11 posts · 30 views

last updated Dec 28, 2016 04:05PM

Alternate Group Read (Classics) - December 2016 - Mansfield Park
By Allison , Quest Hound · 5 posts · 18 views

last updated Dec 04, 2016 09:34AM

showing 10 of 27 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Jan 04, 2014 Lucy Mason rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, classics, favourites, 2014-reading-challenge, 2014

I have never read a book that has made me so angry, happy, frustrated, moved, pained, confused, enlightened, elated, depressed, incredulous, and awe-struck. I simultaneously adored it and wanted to throw it out of the window - I hope Heller would approve.

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Jan 05, 2014 Bouchra Rebiai rated it it was ok

Shelves: 101-in-1001-days-2, read-in-2014

I read this book for a Group Read in one of my groups. From the description of the book, it sounded like it was going to be a fun read. However, a few chapters into the book, my brain felt a bit befuddled. There's a lot of repetition throughout the book, and the book doesn't follow a chronological order in certain things. I guess the writer meant those parts to be flashbacks, but the way they're presented they don't look or sound like flashbacks, it's hard to discern the flashback from the reali I read this book for a Group Read in one of my groups. From the description of the book, it sounded like it was going to be a fun read. However, a few chapters into the book, my brain felt a bit befuddled. There's a lot of repetition throughout the book, and the book doesn't follow a chronological order in certain things. I guess the writer meant those parts to be flashbacks, but the way they're presented they don't look or sound like flashbacks, it's hard to discern the flashback from the reality unless you're really good at doing it.

Yossarian, the main character in the novel, is an interesting character, but he keeps making decisions and changing them every few chapters -- in fact, in some parts of the book he makes a decision and changes it within a few minutes.

I know the novel is supposed to be humorous, which means that there will be a number of silly things going on, but the level of silliness in some parts of this book is absurd. So many things that are supposed to look funny looked like lame jokes to me. (view spoiler)

I'd go on and on about the things that irked me about this book and wouldn't be able to stop, but I have to admit one thing: when I hate so many things about a book, I usually stop reading it and never come back to it again, but somehow, Joesph Heller's talent managed to let me stick through till the end. I kept wanting to know when Colonel Cathcart would stop raising the number of missions required, and what Yossarian would do to get out of doing them, even though almost all the efforts he made just prolonged the time it would take for him to complete the missions ... (view spoiler)

There were some things that were never cleared up, like what happened to Major Major, Major ______ de Coverley, Clevinger, and Doc Daneeka. I'm still debating whether to read the sequel, but if any of these things are cleared up in it, I definitely might consider it more seriously. (view spoiler)

I gave it two stars because even though I didn't like lots of things about the book, I was still hooked up to the end, and not only because it was a Group Read. ...more

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