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Bob G.
Catch-22 gets better as you move through it. The book can be viewed as a set of loosely-connected short stories with a large cast of characters. It takes time for the chapters to mesh. Heller will answer your questions at intervals along the way, too.
After 50 pages, I was wondering if I might abandon it, but I chose to trust the opinions of older readers. After 100 pages, I was starting to like it. After 150 pages, I was sold, and I started thinking I might have to re-read the first 100 pages after I finished the book. This is one of my favorites, and I'm glad I found the patience to give it the chance it deserves.
After 50 pages, I was wondering if I might abandon it, but I chose to trust the opinions of older readers. After 100 pages, I was starting to like it. After 150 pages, I was sold, and I started thinking I might have to re-read the first 100 pages after I finished the book. This is one of my favorites, and I'm glad I found the patience to give it the chance it deserves.
Soumya Jain
It is brilliant. Irony at its best. Also, it is a delightful read. Written with wry, incisive humour, this book is one my all time favourites.
Ethan
I am on page 56 and it is everything I can do to keep reading this book. I can not for the life of me see what attracts people to this book. I literally can't see any plot developing other than a bunch of military officers being made out to be crazy and not in a way that make sense to any type of flow to the story. I have forced my way through some terrible books and I am not sure if I will be able to finish this one. I have set a goal of making it to page 100 before making a decision to quit, but I don't know if I can make it.
Eanna Mcgarrigle
It's brilliant. It's just so funny... bit hard to get into with the timeline all over the place, but the humour brings it through. The characters are amazing and in general, it is a fantastic book. One of my all-time favourites.
Ann-Marie
So far I'm vacillating between "It's alright" and "Just give up on it". I start to enjoy it and then it gets convoluted and I can't follow what's going on so I have to jump back some pages and re-read what just happened. There are parts I find amusing and I catch myself chuckling or at least smiling but then a few pages later I'm looking at the book like it just grew a 3rd head. I'm not done with it yet but hopefully as I push through it I'll begin to enjoy it more.
Brian Zack
Wow. - - - Along with, imho, The Great Gatsby, Moby-Dick, and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, this is one of the most wonderful, brilliant, amazing books ever written in English! It is far and away the most hysterically funny. - - - And, along with Slaughterhouse Five, one of the greatest anti-war novels. - - - *Please* - for your own sake - read it!!! (You can thank me later.) - - - (Hint: Audiobooks are an excellent way to get into long novels like this. That's how I came to love Moby-Dick. I have the Audible Audio edition of Catch-22, read by Jay O. Sanders.) - - - Seriously, don't miss this!!!
Jean Cole
It's not an easy read by any means. But it is certainly thought-provoking. Crazy behavior that seems to be harmless and even funny turns out to be anything but. As another reviewer noted, this is not an anti-war novel, but instead is an anti-military or even "anti-large organization" novel.
Nepeta
one of the best fiction books I ever read
Lemanakmelo
I'll add to what Ann-Marie wrote, because that's how I felt, and at some point I stopped reading midway. But when I finally finished the book I really loved it.
The main thing is it's not a page turner, so you're not compelled to finished, but I think it's worth finishing.
The main thing is it's not a page turner, so you're not compelled to finished, but I think it's worth finishing.
Thentacle
I really didn't like it. I kept reading it, hoping it would be worth it once I finished it. Unfortunately, it isn't. It's not very funny, and nothing happens for the majority of the book.
Kristina
I love it with adoration but totally hated it while I was reading it!I know, not helpful at all, I say go for it because it's a strong book with an even stronger message and even if you end up hating it you'll still think about it from time to time 🙂
Jason Fiore
It's a brilliant satire. It's funny.
However, it is WAY, WAY TOO LONG. It is also WAY TOO REPETITIVE. Joseph Heller REALLY needed a strong editor... someone who should have said, "There is a GREAT novel inside this.... but it REALLY needs to be tighter and shorter."
It is definitely overrated. It is definitely NOT a GREAT novel--it is a GOOD novel. I believe that it is overrated because it supports several competing political points of view. It was embraced by the anti-war types because it's anti-war. It was embraced by the libertarian types, because it pokes fun at Big Government. It was embraced by the lefties because it pokes fun at aspects of Big Government and Big Business / Military Industrial Complex, that they don't like.
However, it is WAY, WAY TOO LONG. It is also WAY TOO REPETITIVE. Joseph Heller REALLY needed a strong editor... someone who should have said, "There is a GREAT novel inside this.... but it REALLY needs to be tighter and shorter."
It is definitely overrated. It is definitely NOT a GREAT novel--it is a GOOD novel. I believe that it is overrated because it supports several competing political points of view. It was embraced by the anti-war types because it's anti-war. It was embraced by the libertarian types, because it pokes fun at Big Government. It was embraced by the lefties because it pokes fun at aspects of Big Government and Big Business / Military Industrial Complex, that they don't like.
Snillocygreg
The text is dense, but it's cleverly written. Though it requires concentration, depending on whether you like the author's sense of humour or not, I guess it can either be really tedious or really rewarding. So it's well worth reading the first three chapters at a book store or library before you decide to commit. I guzzled through the first two but by the third my pace slowed and I've had to go at it in stages since.
I'm currently reading it and I think as a piece of literature it does something that is actually really hard to do - and you don't see often. It makes fun of one of the most tragic periods in the 20th Century without undermining it. Some of the writing is hysterically odd, uncanny or just plain crass but it feels like it's honest without trying to milk your emotions by focusing on fear and sadness which is what I remember most from studying wartime literature at school.
But seriously, if you don't find it that funny then it's probably not for you.
I'm currently reading it and I think as a piece of literature it does something that is actually really hard to do - and you don't see often. It makes fun of one of the most tragic periods in the 20th Century without undermining it. Some of the writing is hysterically odd, uncanny or just plain crass but it feels like it's honest without trying to milk your emotions by focusing on fear and sadness which is what I remember most from studying wartime literature at school.
But seriously, if you don't find it that funny then it's probably not for you.
Beth
I find it to be absolutely hilarious. I can't wait to read more and I really enjoy that feeling of "ooh, so that's what the previous reference meant!!"
But, as others have found it to be difficult... YMMV.
But, as others have found it to be difficult... YMMV.
Jeffrey Gao
NOT. EVEN. CLOSE! Just empty verbiage and nothing significant ever happens. Watch a documentary or better yet, a Metatron video and you'll get far more substance.
David Hoag
I wish I enjoyed this book more, but it was a bit of a slog. The satire was not lost on me, but it was just so homogeneous. ALL satire and absurdity... or pretty close to all. There were brief moments of reality which I might credit Heller with writing intentionally. It's hard to say with books like this. What I would really dread finding out is that the military is actually like this... even in an exaggerated way. I didn't really like any of the characters and feel a bit bad as Catch 22 was one of my father's favorite novels. Ah, well. Maybe the next book I read will be better.
Noah
very good, recommended
Steven Mastroyin
Like a lot of novels with giant swaths of characters and especially a great deal of point of view characters, you can often find yourself liking some stories and hating, literally hating completely, others. If the entire novel were excised of the chaplain stories, for instance, I would have found this book much more enjoyable. Others may have other characters they just don't like. But whenever they take over the narrative it's like hitting a brick wall.
Jane
I started in the Summer and I'm still struggling, it's hard to keep up with every character...I haven't even made it half the book yet. The good thing is, it's pretty comedic. I really want to abandon the book but pushing through so I can complete it.
Muhammad Taqi
Catch-22 is one of the first novels that exposed a different way the US military used to do corruption. Fantastic Novel.
William
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Abdul Khan
Dude, I just started and I am already having a laugh-riot. Its absurdity is its USP.
Anisa jaze
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Amanda Sweden
I have to admit it is a little dry. It is full of irony which keeps me amused, but one can be easily confused throughout the dialogue. I am still fighting my way through it and am determined to read it given that it is a classic, plus the unclear things that are said must have some underlying meaning that will eventually be made clear. I am struggling with the boredom of the first six chapters, but I think it deserves a chance. It is written very well and the text outside the dialogue (the actual story) is very interesting.
Mr. Aquino
I had a hard time reading this book. However, I managed to finish it. It is not a hyperperbaton to express that it is a mixture of David Foster Wallace's "The Pale KIng" and that T.V. Series from the 80's called Police Academy. At times the book is witty. At times, dead boring. Paradox and absurdity seem to be the author's intention. I didn't like it, but I respect people who consider this to be a Opus Magnum. Did it really make the Time's 100 novels?
Helen Deignan
Yes, it is at times convoluted, but well worth the effort.
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