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Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
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Matthew, Assistant List Master
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Oct 01, 2018 05:48AM
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I was finally able to sit down and get into this one today. How has this not been on my reading list before?! I'm enjoying it so far ( just finished Major Major's chapter).
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Cool!
I am still waiting on my hold copy - looks like I will be reading it in November (or maybe even December!?)
Matthew wrote: "Glenda wrote: "I was finally able to sit down and get into this one today. How has this not been on my reading list before?! I'm enjoying it so far ( just finished Major Major's chapter)."Cool!
..."
Ha, I know what you mean, I've had "You" on hold for over 6 months (it better be worth the wait when I finally get it :) !!).
Overall I liked Catch-22. It started out strong and funny (I kept thinking of Klinger from MASH and various escapades from Hogan's Heroes), but the middle seemed to slog on. It started out as a 4 for me, went down to 3-3.5 by the end.
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That is what I seem to remember for when I read it about 15 years ago. I am interested in seeing what I think this time. I am down to number 2 on the hold list! :)
i am rereading for a book club and am surprised at how much I am enjoying this book again. How relevant & NOT dated it is, and how well written and touching as well - in between the satire. I also am thinking where would MASH be without Catch22. (Though the two movies MASH and CATCH22 came out around the same time - and MASH wiped the floor with CATCH22) I am looking forward to the George Clooney HULU series.
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I've read it a few times. I used to love love love it, but now some of the jokes feel like they were written for Catskills comics. It's still overall a great achievement and everybody should give it a shot. Other Heller books to consider include the vastly underrated "Something Happened" and a kind of Jewish Catch-22 in "Good As Gold."
FINISHED: here's my review:Catch-22 was a landmark iconic masterpiece in its day. Does it still hold up? The answer is emphatically yes!
This is my second time round. I first read Heller's opus in the late 1970s when it was very popular in college along with Slaughterhouse Five, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, One Hundred Years of Solitude and Siddhartha.
I was surprised at how well this book holds up and on second reading how it is so much more than an anti-war novel. That's what makes it a great book for me. Life is a battleground and life is a constant struggle to find happiness and dignity even though somebody always tries to up the number of deadly missions you have to fly.
I did not find the book as riveting the second time round as the first – and some find the scattered – “let’s focus on different character” every chapter – approach a little hard to get a grip on. But taken in context – this was a remarkable book for its day – like the first R-rated movies – and in its footsteps MASH, Dr. Strangelove, Deerhunter, Apocalypse with its horrific critique of what Eisenhower called the military industrial complex. The darkly satiric vision of Air Force bureaucracy and the critique of capitalism and supply side economics as represented by Milo – was also a warped view of American business ideals of the time.
Yes – the book now is a bit sexist (e.g., Nately’s whore and other female characters) and violent but it is also a product of its day. But it still holds up sharply – especially in some of the heart-stopping violent descriptions of war at the end of the book (e.g., Yossarian’s and Snowden; Ferrara bombing). It’s the unique formula of war – terror – humor – satire – irreverence that made is so groundbreaking for its day and so influential.
Yossarian is a great everyman main character – not always likeable but extremely empathetic in his struggles to stay alive and make sense of living in a war zone. In fact his struggles to exist as a human being at all in this world. Like Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener, he decides to fight to the death to defend his belief that he "would prefer not to". In this case fly any more death-trap bombing missions.
Did I not mention that it is a funny book as well? There are very dark and funny passages, especially satirical view of military bureaucracy. There are also some moments of beauty amidst the chaos.
A great book to discover or re-discover and still relevant today in its views of war, life, capitalism and stretches the boundaries of empathy and compassion.
Brooklyn wrote: "FINISHED: here's my review:... "Nice review, Brooklyn.
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Click here for my review
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Catch-22 was a landmark iconic masterpiece in its day. Does it still hold up? The answer is emphatically yes!
This is my second time round. I first read Heller's opus..."
Great review!
