Is this a masterpiece in prose or a mindless comedy?

[WordsBeyondBorders]

It's a masterpiece of satire with hysterical realism. It's definitely not mindless, it may seem so on the surface, but there is a method and purpose to the madness.

[marilyn]

This was required reading for me in 1961.

[Will]

I remember I put off reading this for years because, as a naive, young adult, I didn't think a book written in 1961 could actually be funny. I was ignorant, but I'm glad I wasn't too ignorant to never give it a try because this novel moved me beyond words. Never has a book had such a profound affect on me. Brilliant.

[Tim]

I enjoyed the book, found it very funny but have never been compelled to read it again. I think it was definitely a one-off because none of Heller's other books have ever enticed me to read them. It had a bigger initial following in the UK than in the USA and I read it in paperback while still in school. I am afraid that it gave me a very bad (and unjustified) impression of the USAAF, but films like 'Twelve O'clock High' and 'Memphis Belle' also highlight the sometimes surreal way in which combat missions were carried out. Heller was based in Italy and I wonder what Catch-22 would have been like if he had been with the 8th Air Force in Britain

[Chris]

A monumental book. Ingenious craziness on every page. I have never "laughed out loud" while reading and I didn't here, but this novel had me smiling, shaking my head, and thinking, 'How did Heller do this?' Just fantastic.

[Vivek]

I started reading this book during second year of my graduation and found it so dull and unexciting that I could not read past a couple of score pages. After a few years I gathered some more courage and picked up the book once again. This time I was truly captured and found it un-put-downble. I truly believe that this is a master piece. I am so surprised that so many other readers too had the same experience!
Those who found this book boring, I would sincerely urge them not to give-up on this masterpiece.

[Sheila]

Tim wrote: "I enjoyed the book, found it very funny but have never been compelled to read it again. I think it was definitely a one-off because none of Heller's other books have ever enticed me to read them. I..."

Tim, I find it really funny you mention the movie Memphis Belle in your comment. I pulled up many of my memories of the movie when trying to visualize some of the scenes in the book.

Thank you for reminding me of that. :)

[Ann]

When I first read this in high school, it was the end of the Vietnam War. My favorite TV show was (and is) MASH, so the novel was a wonderful companion. During subsequent re-reads, I have grown older and my life situations have changed, including living alone for a year and a half while my husband was in Iraq (let's just say, the Army is somewhat better run now) and working as a corporate exec. The latter has changed my view of Catch-22 to see how it is also an allegory to corporate abuse and bureaucracy. My all-time favorite book.

[Steve]

I'd be making a fool of myself if I said that this book is "bad", as far smarter people than me have declared it a masterpeice. But I really did not enjoy reading it. I'm sure that there is something to be gained from reading this book but life is too short to be reading books you don't enjoy.

[Joanne]

Amen, Steve.

[Will]

Steve wrote: "I'm sure that there is something to be gained from reading this book but life is too short to be reading books you don't enjoy"

But surely if there is something to be gained, then the effort will not be wasted.

[Jason]

I love catch22. Sometimes I feel like Yossarian, like he was the onlooker of madness and then consistently feeling as if hes going mad himself verses adversity. Yossarian is the window into that mad world.
Although the Chaplin definitely has it worse off in catch22 and I found myself feeling sorry for him. Its such a brilliant book.

[Steve]

Will wrote: "Steve wrote: "I'm sure that there is something to be gained from reading this book but life is too short to be reading books you don't enjoy"

But surely if there is something to be gained, than th..."

No, it wouldn't be a waste at all. But it wouldn't be enjoyable either and there are so many enjoyable mind expanding books out there. Having said that, it's obviously one of the great books and everyone should probably try it. Just don't force yourself to read books you aren't enjoying in an attempt to keep up with the smart set.

[E.P.]

I think it took me three goes to get Catch 22. But when I did get it, boy did I ever get it. It is that extremely rare thing: a completely novel novel. Heller took the English language to places it had never been before. Gloriously funny and thrilling.

[Jason]

major major major major, salutes you.

[Trent]

In my opinon it is one of the most beautiful books ever written. Absolute masterpiece.

[Sandra]

I think it is definitely a masterpiece. I read the book after being told by a visitor from Sweden that it would change the way I thought about everything. I can't honestly say that it changed my ideas that much, but it bring them into sharper focus. I find it amazing that a book can be at once funny, sad, and horrifying.

[Satyaanveshi]

Thom wrote: "After reading 30 opinions the conclusion can be reached that readers either love it or hate it. One man's trash is anothers treasure."
Yeah, I too after reading the book felt the same, that there will some people who will like it a lot and some who won't even be able to complete it. I liked it a lot by the way, I appreciate absurdist humour the most amongst all the forms.

[Sterling Malory Archer]

i just finished this book and i loved it, i loved it more than i could ever hope to love a book, it's a masterpiece for me and i'll probably start re-reading it tomorrow, i can't recommend this book enough to everyone.
but having said that i personally loved this book from the very first pages and if you don't enjoy the writing or appreciate the humor i don't think you should go on reading it.

[A.J.]

True comedy hangs it hat on tragic vignettes...Catch 22 is one of my favorite books.

[Len]

Arthur wrote: "Dull and mindless.
Didn't find it funny. At all.
I could not finish it. It is a very rare occasion when I give up, because usually even if I don't like a book I am curious how it ends. Not this time."
I enjoy humor and satire, but this book stretched my limits. I started to find this book predictable and I wondered what else the author was trying to say with his endless loop of predictable stories and 2D characters. It was obvious the author's own war experience touched him enough to write this book but I got the point early on and I felt most of this book was a waste of paper and ink in that respect.I couldn't finish it myself which is rare.

[Joanne]

I couldn't finish it either Len, and I tried three times. It felt contrived to me, I "got" it but it didn't work.

[Jerome]

I absolutely hated it. THE WORST BOOK EVER. Even Eragon is better than this, and that's saying something. Here's my review.

[Will]

Your hyperbolic review was terrible, and that's not an exaggeration and it's not because I disagree.

[Jerome]

Ha! That's funny. Thanks.

[Will]

You're welcome!

[Byron]

Masterpiece? Not really, though I think the style of humor in it is only now becoming mainstream. Dull and dumb? No. Even though I'm not a big pusher of Catch-22, I definitely think the writing is smart. I just have issues with the fact that it's mostly Joseph Heller showing off how clever he is. The story just winds around itself and, for me, I stopped caring. I see what he was going after but he got too tied up in the jokes to really deliver the story properly.

[Kirsten]

I just read this book for the first time and absolutely loved it. Though I thought the story was circular, each time, the circle gets a little wider and you see a little more. I think the first half of the book is hilarious, but as I continued through and began to understand how the absurdity was reaction of desperate hearts and minds to reconcile the horror of war with humanity at large, it became so tragic and meaningful to me. I thought each character brilliant in their own insanity. When Arfy commits his horrific act - it is beyond amazing. You just come through seeing Yossarian pass by so many awful things on the street, only to walk in on Arfy and his inability to understand why, in the midst of war, anyone would car about a single, seemingly unimportant person. And then Heller takes a brilliant turn again by having the police run in to arrest Yossarian! It was frustrating, infuriating, ridiculous, and incredible. I watched the movie shortly after and LOVE Arkin's portrayal of Yossarian, but the movie comes nowhere near the depth of the novel.

[Giansar]

Thom wrote: "I first read Catch 22 in 1969 in Vietnam. It was about another war but the system seems to never change."
Wow.
I remember watching a documentary TV series, which depicted a group of recruits during their training in an elite airborne unit of the Polish Army. It was some 10 years ago. I was watching one episode with my father who served in the beginning of the 60'. For the first fifteen minutes he just sat and nodded his head slowly and then as a sergeant was yelling his head off at the recruits for failing to fold their socks properly and placing their toothbrushes, bristles facing the wrong way in their bedside cabinets - both skills apparently essential for survival on a battlefield, he (my dad) said:"Nothing f**king changed in forty years!"
I think a lot of people who read the book without having ever anything to do with the military don't get it. People treat the book as if it were just an over-the-top satire, which exaggerates every little military absurdity to the point of utter ridiculousness. I didn't serve myself but I've known many people that did. The stories they tell could be easily fitted into the book and they wouldn't be any less bizarre than what Heller wrote.
Army is a very strange place...

[Geri]

This is one of the best books that I have ever read...A book that has a profound affect on the reader. I was very young when I first read it. I imagine if / when I ever read it again it will have the same sort of affect - Maybe even more

[[deleted user]]

Yes, it's a masterpiece. One of the funniest books ever. Sure, there's depth, and plenty of it, but I mostly loved this book because it's so damned funny.

[Robin]

I've read that its a poorly written book... to me it is Kafka-esk,an insightful glimpse of the gaps in culture and society we all fall into sometimes...

[Mauricio]

Thom wrote: "I first read Catch 22 in 1969 in Vietnam. It was about another war but the system seems to never change. Joseph Heller takes the senselessness of war to an extreme but never loses the basic truth o..."
Was going to leave some comments on this book but not much need be said after this comment by Thom, "I suddenly realized there was a personal side to war and not just patriotism and policies." I can imagine reading this for the first time in Vietnam in 1969. Must have been a really timely read.

[Mauricio]

On the question of whether this is masterpiece or comedy I would say it is both, A comic masterpiece. The fact that Heller was able to combine the solemnity of war and the comic absurd (and makes it work) is what makes this a masterpiece. Thinking about this book makes me think about Baudelaire's study On The Essence of Laughter, "The sage laughs not save in fear and trembling" The sage in this case is not me the reader but the author himself. The author is saying that to him the war was incomprehensible and so as he tries later to write about his experiences, the form it seems to take comes across as a caricature and to us the reader it comes across as comical.

[Stevie]

I'm voting masterpiece. I think you have to put some work and thought into it to get its rewards, and some life experience helps too (especially with bureaucracies or hierarchies) then it pays off big. I love this book, it sits in my mind and just keeps giving. Any author who could write like this demands reading:

Major Major's father was a sober God-fearing man whose idea of a good joke was to lie about his age. He was a long-limbed farmer, a God-fearing, freedom-loving, law-abiding rugged individualist who held that federal aid to anyone but farmers was creeping socialism. He advocated thrift and hard work and disapproved of loose women who turned him down. His specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing any. The government paid him well for every bushel of alfalfa he did not grow. The more alfalfa he did not grow, the more money the government gave him, and he spent every penny he didn't earn on new land to increase the amount of alfalfa he did not produce. Major Major's father worked without rest at not growing alfalfa. On long winter evenings he remained indoors and did not mend harness, and he sprang out of bed at the crack of noon every day just to make certain that the chores would not be done. He invested in land wisely and soon was not growing more alfalfa than any other man in the county. Neighbors sought him out for advice on all subjects, for he had made much money and was therefore wise. 'As ye sow, so shall ye reap,' he counseled one and all, and everyone said, 'Amen.'

There are hundreds of little vignettes like that and every page has at least two little self-reflexive logical stupidities.

[Alan]

Mindless? This is a ridiculous question. This is an antiwar novel with satiric overtones, anda memorable tragicomic hero in Yossarian. In an era where most of the literature about WW2 was serious or heroic (eg From Here to Eternity,Naked and the Dead), this was a satiric, and "antiheroic" novel pointing out the absurdity of war from an entirely different viewpoint than the earlier novels.

You dont have to like it but it is not mindless, and to write off its impact as "an inspiration for Mash" is ridiculous.

[Andrew]

MASTERPIECE, definitely.

[Gerald]

Thom wrote: "I first read Catch 22 in 1969 in Vietnam. It was about another war but the system seems to never change. Joseph Heller takes the senselessness of war to an extreme but never loses the basic truth o..."

Wow...I must be writing to a mirror. Thom, I too read this book in Nam. Laughed my #$% off. Helped me maintain as well. I list it as one of the best books I've ever read. Maybe Nam had something to with that. Enjoyed your review.

[Ian]

profound, prose, black comedy, social satire.

[David]

Catch-22 is the only book I have reread multiple times - over a dozen. As a teen it was hilarious and dissolved my mindless respect for authority. Each reading is different - darkly serious worldview, slapstick, genuine commentary on a citizen's place in the world.

This book is in my top 1.

[[deleted user]]

this a masterpiece on mindless wars we have been fighting against unknown faces

[Jack]

Catch-22 is a masterpiece!! It may be the "Great American Novel", although, even though I see that designation frequently, I'm not sure what it means. I could probably suggest a dozen books for that title.

[Kerrod]

This book had been on my to read list for quite a while... probably before Goodreads was even here! From the get go I found it pretty hard to get used to Hellers writing style but I pushed through it and I have to say that this is in my top 5 (so far! I've got a long ways to go in my literary endeavors).

I think it is both a masterpiece in that it deals with the pointlessness of the war and Yossarian's role in it, and a mindless comedy in that it is downright stupid at times, without taking from the overall message of the novel.

[Mind]

I had to start it three times before it caught me, but I was lucky enough to be surrounded by devotees of the book. I notice how many people who don't like it didn't finish it, and I think you have to finish it to really appreciate it. It is really funny, and it gets funnier and funnier until it stops being funny--because it is the comedy of hysteria, the mad laughter that is really the beginning of the gut-wrenching scream of agony, terror and despair.

If there is a generation gap in its appreciation--and I really don't know if there is--it's likely that some people have grown up with no sense that the world should be orderly and meaningful, who make what is really a cheap throwaway assumption that Milo really runs the world and always has and, most dangerously, that this is inevitable and not cool to question.

[Raphael]

A timeless masterpiece. This is one of the two books that made me laugh out loud while reading. The other was City of Thieves, another WWII novel.

[Deeptanshu]

I have to admit that I was in two minds about this book while reading it, some parts seemed brilliant but most others semmed extremely pointless but as I progressed further and became used to the illogical randomness of this world I have to say that I loved it. So if anyone gave up on this book after just reading a bit of it please try to finish the book. You might just change your mind.

[Rowell]

On the edition that i've read, Joseph Heller talks about how the book was recieved. As some of us might know, this book was as polarizing then as it is now. The preface by Heller talked about a review (forgot which exactly) that mentioned--and I paraphrase--how the same things that make people love the book also causes other people to just absolutely hate it. I'm inclined to agree. I think if you aren't feeling it by the 40th page, you probably won't like it at all and perhaps you need to move on to other things. However, the book employs a lot of foreshadowing and the timeline jumps into the past, and it does it from the get go. I can definitely see how that could be confusing and perhaps turn some people off. As you get more and more into the story all the "confusing" stuff starts making more sense and threads that were left hanging are addressed and everything starts to work wonderfully well.

[Donna]

To answer your initial question: yes.

To be honest, though, I don't consider it a mindless comedy at all. The chaos is planned. I think that this novel and All Quiet On the Western Front are the best anti-war novels ever written. The ending of this one was my own ah-ha mortality moment. It made a deep impression; I may reread it a third time now that you've brought it up.

[Thomas]

This book is a masterpiece!

[Terri]

It is a combination of both.