Snillocygreg answers “Is it any good?”

Avik asked this question about Catch-22:

Is it any good?

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 g…moreThe 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.(less)

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Kirby It felt rewarding to me when I finished reading it. I thought I might DNF at first with only a few chapters under my belt, but I was encouraged to sti ...more
Jan 02, 2020 04:18PM · flag

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