Catch-22 in Around the World in 80 Books

Dec 28, 2014 Scott Flicker rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook-completed, completed-2015, classics

I had no idea what this book was about at first. But this has to be the funniest book I've ever read.
Just about every chapter had me laughing out loud multiple times. ...more

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Feb 14, 2013 Tony rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

I've always been interested in reading this legendary book, just not 450-pages interested, so I was pleased when my book club selected it and I was "required" to read it. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the end, I was much less pleased. I found the book's much-vaunted humor to be tiresome in the extreme, the characters far too cartoonish for me to care when bad things happen, and the entire enterprise to be about twice as long as necessary. Which is not to say there weren't some things to li ...more

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May 16, 2012 Nadine in NY Jones rated it did not like it

Shelves: did-not-finish, book-club-read, classic, 1001-books

Book club pick for June 2012, and I'm having a really hard time with it. Got through the first few chapters, but by the end I was skimming. I really dislike Yosarian, and I find the author's attempts at wit to be tiresome. Uh-oh, yet another book club pick that I am hating! I've had a really bad track record with book club picks. Starting to wonder why I'm even in the book club.

*

Oh, who am I kidding? I'm not going to read this book. ...more

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Jan 31, 2013 Kay rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, world_war_ii, american-lit

"Peace on earth would mean the end of civlization as we know it." (Joseph Heller)

Okay, now I've finally read it after all these years. And my reaction was.... ambivalence. This is a brilliant but exasperating book, and I'd be on surer footing if I could only figure out if my exasperation is something the author had intended. (I suspect not.)

It's hard to make a balanced judgement about something that has beeen woven so tightly into our collective modern culture, but I'll try.

I greatly enjoyed th "Peace on earth would mean the end of civlization as we know it." (Joseph Heller)

Okay, now I've finally read it after all these years. And my reaction was.... ambivalence. This is a brilliant but exasperating book, and I'd be on surer footing if I could only figure out if my exasperation is something the author had intended. (I suspect not.)

It's hard to make a balanced judgement about something that has beeen woven so tightly into our collective modern culture, but I'll try.

I greatly enjoyed the first 100 or so pages, when the cast of characters is introduced and the full irony of Yossarian's situation is laid out. Laughing out loud at many points, I found Heller's style fresh and original. I even enjoyed (at first) the use of constant, recursive arguments that went on (and on and on) between the characters. The structure of the book intrigued me -- a series of overlapping vignettes, not chronologically ordered, with frequent mention of events that have yet to be explained. The audacity and originality of it all were more than I'd expected. The war is treated not with realism, but with hyperbole. I couldn't shake the thought that Heller's closest precursors were in Russian literature -- Gogol, in particular. But I could see how groundbreaking the novel must have been when originally released.

But at around page 200, I began to become impatient with the continual dialogues and recurrent discussions between characters. Why did the same events have to be described multiple times, often with little shift in perspective? Almost all the chapters were titled after one of the characters and dealt with one of the key episodes of the book (e.g., the Bologna bombing, Yossarian's various hospital stays, a trip to Rome on leave). Af first I grimly stuck to my belief that this repetition and recursiveness was part of the intent and that I was just missing something. But then I just began to sigh in exasperation. By the end, when Heller began to wantonly kill off most of the flight crews, I was just anxious for it all to end. The ending, which I knew bothered some people, didn't bother me, but the long build up to it did.

So here's my final take: for its original use of black humor, searing portrayal of bureaucratic absurdity, and bizarre, almost cartoonish surrealism, Catch-22 stands as a literary masterpiece. But for its lack of restraint and need for readerly patience, it came up short in my estimation. It felt, to me, like Heller had fallen so in love with his vision that he simply couldn't control himself. I was bedeviled by the feeling that I was missing something, but that left me irritated rather than intrigued. The best I can say is that the book made a very strong impression, as much for its flaws as its originality.

Oh, and one more thing: it's hard for a modern woman not to be put off by the depictions of women (99% whores) in Catch-22. I'm surprised it didn't bother me more than it did, actually. I think I recognized that the women were supernumeraries in this opera and didn't take it too seriously.

...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Astrid Lim rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, america, literature, historical-fiction, world-war, satire, politics, 1001-books

Wow, this is one helluva book!! I can't decide if I love or hate this book :D A story about war written very masterfully - not in a sad/touchy/depressing way, but hilarious, witty and absurd. This book opened up a different perspective about war: what's so great about war? What's so important about a nation? A country? What's so good to die for a place where you were born? The absurdity of all was added by the irrational, illogical concept called Catch 22 - that made you trapped in the irrationa ...more

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Jul 15, 2009 Jennifer Eklund rated it did not like it

I have tried to read this book on 3 separate occasions and can never get past the first 60 or so pages. I'm not sure I will be making any more attempts. ...more

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