Ruth's Reviews > Catch-22

I found this book as number 2 on the list of funniest books ever. Number one being the hitchhikings guide to the Galaxy.
I found that one incredibly funny, so I looked forward to another such funny book.
And indeed this book had me laugh out loud so often that the children kept asking what was so funny, and then I couldn't explain, of course, because it is funny because everything is so ridiculously paradoxical. And of course it is a lot of gallows humor, born out of incredible frustration with the insanity of how things go in the world. Thankfully I have never been in a war, but still I recognize this frustration with things that go terribly wrong, and I think that was what made me laugh so much at this book. Some things are so bad that you will go insane if you take them seriously.

There is a lot of incredibly indecent behavior in this book, quite shocking if it weren't all described so lightly, and that adds to the general sense of the insanity of human beings, especially during a war.

The most endearing person in the book is the chaplain who tries so hard to be good and humble and helpful, but who is so shy and soft hearted and anxious that he feels miserable all the time.

In the end it's no longer funny. The raw tragedy of the war and all the really horrible things that happen are described without restraint.
I am very much impressed.