Catch-22

If you are not born with the English tongue, just know that if you understand the next words, you'll be fine: Scintillating, Coalesced, Sullen, Delectable, Pulpit, Coveted, Belligerent, Gamboling, Nosegay, Countenance, Prodigiously, Trepidation, Circumspect, Abrasions, Abreast, Consternation, Scornfully, Petulantly, Domitably, Corrugated, Ominously, Awning, Invidiously,... Because these words will be the average difficulty for the entire book.

I had to check at least 6 words per page. But the thing is that I added a lot of words to my lexicon now. So persevere, as the chaplain would say to you.

This was an exhilarating novel, a rollercoaster for the eye and mind, but not suited for me. I liked the “war is chaos” theme, but it was too much for me.

Still one of the most unique books I've read.

A very very funny book. A great critique on the strange intricacies and politics of war. It is a fairly manic and psychotic. It features many, many characters, so much so that it feels a bit Dostoyevskian at times, with a hint of Nick Hornby.
And exactly this is what made it a bit hard to read at times. The chapters always revolve around one of the characters, cycling through the many different characters, so after a while this gets a bit much. Halfway through I put it aside for a while, because I did not see where it was going. Then the hilarity can only get you through for 1 or 2 chapters. Around page 400 or so it I was again submerged in the story. But maybe that's the catch. That when you read it, you want to put it aside. When you're not reading it, you want to pick it up again. It's a mighty Catch, that one.

Awesome. I am excited to read another Heller book as soon as possible, which will be somewhere next year :)

I really liked this book. It's a very cynical read however for me personally it resonates with my attitudes and disillusionment with the US government, ineffective elected officials, and the military industrial complex. Running the gauntlet from hilarity on a surreal level (some chapters read more like an Abbot and Costello routine) to deeply disturbing tragedy the book unearths a lot of deep questions and contradictions about the way we view life, death, and war.

I can see how this book is pretty divisive, I was pretty turned off after a few chapters because I hadn't quite gotten into the more surreal aspects of it however I'm really glad I pushed through.

I first read this book in the 1970s, I think, and I was impressed by it then, but I wasn't much inclined to reread it; maybe I read it two or three times in the 1970s and then left it on the shelf.Trying it again in 2022, my initial reaction was that it was funnier than I remembered, to the extent that it reminded me of [b:The Importance of Being Earnest 24949945 The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1522220520l/24949945.SY75.jpg 649216], which I was reading just recently. Both Wilde and Heller write dialogue that seems crazy and yet makes a strange kind of sense.However, Wilde's play is concise and remains funny throughout. Heller's novel goes on and on and gradually becomes more depressing than funny. I was glad to reach the end at last, and put it down with some relief.How to evaluate it? I still think it's a good novel of its kind, but it's not really my kind of novel, and I'm not sure whether I'll ever read it again. On that basis, I might give it two stars: my normal rating for a book that I'm unlikely to reread. However, the early chapters are funny, and the book has made a lasting impression on me, so I'll be generous and give it three stars.21st century readers should be aware that this novel was written in the 1950s, published in 1961, and is set in the early 1940s. The characters are all male or female without complications, and heterosexual—despite the misleading first two sentences. Almost all the women are regarded and treated as sex objects, and many of them are in fact prostitutes; I suppose this is the traditional military view of women encountered in wartime.

Hmmm, Wanted to like it. But had to keep coming back to the reviews to convince myself not to give up on it. I'm glad I read it to the end but more glad to be done and moving on.

Interesting use of timeline. Enjoyed the characters overall and appreciate the effort to bring to light the mentality of war.

At times thought Heller was using the dialog and repetitive nature to numb the reader intentionally. Who knows.

It was kinda funny reading this immediately after Starship Troopers, which was very much about putting yourself on the line for the good of society. Here we have a book which questions whether it makes any sense to the individual to do that, especially when inspiring leadership is nothing but a fantasy. This is a predecessor of MAS*H and Black Adder goes Forth.

“From now on I'm thinking only of me.”

Major Danby replied indulgently with a superior smile: “But, Yossarian, suppose everyone felt that way.”

“Then,” said Yossarian, “I'd certainly be a damned fool to feel any other way, wouldn't I?”

“Man was matter. Drop him out of a window and he'll fall. Set fire to him and he'll burn. Bury him and he'll rot, like other kinds of garbage.”

“The enemy,” retorted Yossarian with weighted precision, “is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on, and that includes Colonel Cathcart. And don't you forget that, because the longer you remember it, the longer you might live.”

If you're into satire, quirky characters, and government bureaucracy, this is your jam!

Yossarian is a neurotic bombardier who doesn't want to fly any more missions because he's scared of dying. He makes frequent visits to the hospital, where he fakes a liver issue so he can lie in bed all day. Then he decides to try to convince his superiors that he's crazy (and he might really be), because anyone who is crazy isn't allowed to fly. All they have to do is request to be grounded due to their mental health. But the catch is that anyone who does submit such a request is deemed to be sane because only a sane person would care about their safety. Heller's book is full of those types of catches, paradoxes, and circular reasoning.

This is the funniest novel I've ever read. Every page has laugh-out-loud moments and witticisms. Satire is very difficult to do well and Heller masters it here.

The story is told in a nonlinear fashion, with scenes connected by free association and the pieces slowly coming together to form a narrative. But even so, it's more a collection of crazy occurrences than a strong plot and no character really has any arc. Instead, the many characters exist for comic relief, to further the story, and to make satirical points. Every character is crazy in one way or another, which is why there's another catch to trying to get out of missions: Crazy people must be able to go on missions, because no one else will.

With stronger character arcs, this might be a perfect novel, but even without it, it's a timeless classic and one of the great American novels.

[August 2018] I don't know if this is the fifth time I've read it or the sixth. Or seventh. Doesn't matter; it might be my last. It's just not as funny when daily we hear of real-life Aarfys, Milos, Cathcarts and Korns and other cockroaches in too-powerful positions.

I will always love this book. Every page has crushing examples of how horrible humans can be; yet every few pages Heller reminds us how kind we can be too. While it's certainly not The Great Novel About The Human Experience—for one, there are no female characters—Heller covers huge swaths of the big ones: courage, cruelty, greed, compassion, blind moronic obedience. (Come to think of it, maybe this is the perfect book for the present republican administration). Most importantly—this is what keeps the reader going—Heller highlights it all with a tone of utter absurdity. Sometimes it's delighted absurdity, sometimes exasperated, but always engaging and thoughtful.

This is an important book; and I don't mean one to have gathering dust on your bookshelf. If you haven't read it, please do.

I tried twice with the audiobook version of this book and maybe got one third of the way into it before quitting. It was brought to me by the Verge bookclub, so I thought I'd persevere with it, and bought the Kindle version. That's when it began to make sense. I guess some books just aren't suited to the audiobook format for me.

As with Les Misérables last year, which I gave up on twice, this has become the book of the year for me. This is no throwaway pulpy book. The language itself is utterly gorgeous. It kind of has a Python-esque wit and humour to it, intelligent and dense, while seeming somehow shallow. It's difficult to explain. I found myself highlighting phrase after phrase in the Kindle app and laughing out loud in parts. It's the sort of writing that makes you want to share the phrases with loved ones. If only I could read this in a group and talk about it like we used to talk about Spitting Image on a Monday morning in the playground.

Again, as with Les Misérables, this is a book I would dearly like to return to and to have a nice printed copy of. It's the kind of book that, having read it through once, it would be useful to have in a Kindle app to dip in and out of in a waiting room or at a bus stop. The language is that good.

I loved every bit of it. The message to take away from this is that, more often than not, classics become so for a very good reason and that perseverance really can pay off!

9/10

I've been putting this book off for a while now. But I shouldn't have doubted Heller and Catch-22 lived up to all the hype. It was extremely funny and poignant. Probably the best military satire I've ever read. It pokes fun at war and the military in general. At times it is so ridiculous and yet believable. The absurd and somehow relatable characters were delightful to read.

Catch-22 is almost unequivocally the best work of fiction I've ever read. It's definitely a grower, but boy when it does, you're in for a wild ride. Reading this book you are bombarded with a slew of hilarious stories about an insane cast of characters. Slowly but surely there comes into focus a tragic tale of a bunch of officers trying to make it through a horrible war with their mind and body in one piece. This novel manages to capture with perfect clarity the absurdism of war and the (funny) craziness of bureaucracy and hierarchy. Never has a book managed to be so funny and sad at the same time. Not to mention the fact that it's endlessly quotable:

“They're trying to kill me,” Yossarian told him calmly.
No one's trying to kill you,” Clevinger cried.
Then why are they shooting at me?” Yossarian asked.
They're shooting at everyone,” Clevinger answered. “They're trying to kill everyone.”
And what difference does that make?”

Stop what you're doing, and go and read this book right now, force yourself to read the first 150 pages no matter what, it takes a while to “get it” but once you do, boy will you be glad.

Catch-22 is one of those books that people tend to “know” without having read, which is a bit of a shame, because it's actually rather delightful to read. That walk the case with me:I knew what a catch-22 was, and as such never bothered reading it before now.

I've seen reviews of Catch-22 that refer to it as a book about war; that's true on one level, obviously, but it's true in the same sense as SunTzu's Art of War is, where it's about war, but it's also about politics, business, and any other large-scale social institution. Heller's not just saying war doesn't make sense, but rather that life itself is a absurdist farce - even though the book predates it, the t ext kept reminding me of that WoodyAllen line about god being a comedian playing to an audience that's afraid to laugh.

My one complaint is that the book drags a bit in the middle; at 350 pages this book would have been perfection; at 450 it has to settle only for excellence.c

This was shit. It doesn't hit my good spot at all. I'm a very character-driven person, you know? If the plot is bad, I can sometimes get by if the characters are still good, but these characters are so many, and they're all unlikeable, they're all the same, they do the same shit, and they know the same people. I can't read books like this! That's not interesting to me! It's so clearly satire, but it's not funny to me. It's just depressing and frustrating to read. I need hope! This doesn't give it. I need enjoyable characters (not necessarily likeable ones) but this doesn't give it. And finally, it's just such a fucking drag. There was absolutely no reason for this book to be longer than 300 pages. None. Silch. Nu-uh. It's too long, and it's hard to keep tabs on which character you're with, and it's entirely character-driven but without character development (because it's satire...), and I really wish I hadn't needed to waste my precious time reading a book that wasn't suited to my tastes whatsoever, when I'm busy enough as it is right now. Because all this book did was frustrate me. It was just. so. frustrating. Never again do I want to think about this book. 

A long, boring read. The humour was too slapstick for mine. Maybe funny in its day but all I could think was that perhaps it was just one long dream, given that some of the scenarios were like things that occur in dreams (talking to guy in plane who couldn't hear and he kept repeating). Sorry for all the fans out there, I tried.

Summary: Set during World War II, this story centers on a bombardier named Yossarian and his companions. It portrays the lunacy of war, sometimes by using humor and sometimes by exposing just how atrocious it can be. The novel can be confusing at times because it does not proceed in regular chronological order.