BOTM May 2020: Catch-22

[Vickie]

This month the winner is Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Happy Reading!

[Keli, Keli Snail]

Awesome. I've got my copy and am ready to go.

[Pien]

The online library actually has it! So glad to join in!

[Pien]

Has anyone started this one yet? I only read a little bit but it doesn’t seem to be my ‘cup of tea’. Absurd humor, bit like The hitchikers guide.
What do you think?

[Fred]

Pien wrote: "Has anyone started this one yet? I only read a little bit but it doesn’t seem to be my ‘cup of tea’. Absurd humor, bit like The hitchikers guide.
What do you think?"
Hi Pien ; I had been following the May book of the month thread . I didn't have a better book to suggest, but I have tried to re-read some of the titles I enjoyed form the 60's and 70's ; Catcher in the Rye, Coffee Tea or Me , The World According To Garp and Catch 22 .
Those books were set in a time long before you were born (I'm guessing )but they aren't really history or historical fiction . They are stories of youthful angst set in a world that doesn't exist any more.
I would love to hear other people's thoughts also.

[Vickie]

I don't plan on reading this one, just not enough interest for me.🤷🏼‍♀️

[Keli, Keli Snail]

Pien, it is truly absurd but that's Heller's point about the war.
I tried to read it once before and got about a third of the way through before I had to take a break, which has lasted well over a year. I found the absurdity hard to read. But then I read A Confederacy of Dunces, which is also an continuous series of saying, "what the hell?" and I managed to finish that. So it gave me hope. And as this is such a seminal work, that has left a lasting contribution to culture, and is saying something (unlike O'Toole's) I feel like I should read it. And I do want to know what happens to Yossarian.

[Pien]

Don’t tell anyone, everyone, but I quit reading this one. 😉
As Keli and Fred said, the book is culturally a very important piece. But I just can’t find any joy, amazement or interest in going through these pages.
I understand the meaning, war is crazy and insane, everything about it, so don’t write heroic stories about it. Just show how dirty and meaningless it all is.
That’s good. I also think that if it’s more your taste than it’s mine, it’s well written.

I read this is a book you either love or hate, and I hope many of you will enjoy it a lot!

[Erin]

I tried reading it several years ago and gave up. Not for me either...

[Jane]

Pien, It's something of a relief to me that you feel that way about the book. I'm a few chapters in, and not sure I'm going to like it either. I will try to just go with it for now, but may resort to skim-reading or skipping bits if I get frustrated by it.

[Candace]

I gave it up, went back to it years later and slogged through. Now I don't torture myself with books I find too difficult. It's not like there's a book judge in the sky keeping score... :)

[Jane]

Have given up, too. I feel it was of its time, and now feels just past its best, in a way that other works from earlier eras don't.

[Pien]

Hi Jane, sounds like you gave it a good try! Classics are most of the time beautiful, for me sometimes after getting used to a slower pace. (I don’t have a lot of patience). But this one... It certainly was the weirdest!
I wonder why, in that time, this was such a hit. Because it was so different? Was there a lot of anger and need for sarcasm?

[Keli, Keli Snail]

I might have to admit defeat with this one. Not one of my better suggestions. Sorry I put this one forward. 😒 I really wanted to give it a proper go but I can't manage to read more than a few pages a day. At this rate I will likely finish at the end of summer. I'll keep trying but this, like Jane Austen was for me, might be a classic because it was a first of its kind. But as the years have gone by the uniqueness of delivery is just tedious.