Name: Catch-22
Rating: 3.954501915708812 (522 reviews)
ISBN: 9780099496960

Howard Jacobson

Heller, Joseph

'Never Has a Book Been Laughed and Wept Over So Many Times'

Catch-22

clara

“I’m not old.” “You're inches away from death every time you go on a mission. How much older can you be at your age?”

Joseph Heller

Eva RK

Brilliant book, lots of intelligent and funny sarcasm, one of my all time favourite fiction books ever. The book was written in 1961 but it's still so actual, it's not only a war novel, it tell so much about hierarchical relationships, bureaucracy, economy, there's catch-22 everywhere. And it's full of satire and black humour of the best level. I think it has some hints of Kafka but with lots of satire and the madness of the film Apocalypse Now. I just read some reviews about the book and many people loved it because of the great humour but several people found it difficult to follow and could not understand it.

Catch 22.

I'm usually not a fan of war stories because I feel that there is no way to not glorify the heroism of soldiers in war and the idea of good vs. evil. But this story through its bizarre vignettes and surreal characters does an amazing job of showing the absurdity and randomness of war, and then the sudden glimpses of the horror of it as well.  

Laura McNeill

Catch-22 is like no other novel. It is one of the funniest books ever written, a keystone work in American literature, and even added a new term to the dictionary. At the heart of Catch-22 resides the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero endlessly inventive in his schemes to save his skin from the horrible chances of war. His efforts are perfectly understandable because as he furiously scrambles, thousands of people he hasn't even met are trying to kill him. His problem is Colonel Cathcart, who keeps raising the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempts to excuse himself from the perilous missions that he is committed to flying, he is trapped by the Great Loyalty Oath Crusade, the hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule from which the book takes its title: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes the necessary formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very act of making the request proves that he is sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved. Catch-22 is a microcosm of the twentieth-century world as it might look to some one dangerously sane -- a masterpiece of our time.

Atharv Gupta

had a ton of engaging moments, but sadly double or triple the amount of random and unengaging ones

Jennifer

I can see why this is a classic. It demonstrates the absurdity and humor in personalities and circumstances, especially when you put a bunch of strangers in a group together in the instance of the travesties of war. There are a lot of characters in this book and it’s hard to keep track, even though the descriptions of each character are great. There are also a lot of “who’s on first” type jokes and clever wordplay which all reflect the title. The story is still relevant and has parallels with this current presidential administration. I can definitely see why they’re making it a miniseries with George Clooney. I’m excited to watch it! (I know there’s a movie of it too so maybe I’ll get around to watching that also) I feel like a good song equivalent to this book would be “Ironic” by Alanis Morissette. Where things aren’t really ironic per se, but just really unfortunate. I kept falling asleep while reading this, so, four stars.

Timeo Williams

I loved the satirical/ paradoxical humor in this book. Was filled with small gems of wisdom, in otherwise trash.

Sarah Sammis

While the individual chapters are amusing the emphasis seems to be too heavily on the strange characters in the squadron and not enough on creating a coherent plot. Each chapter can be treated as a short story unto itself rather than part of a greater whole and after awhile that approach began to get on my nerves.

Eugene

Middle part of felt like a repetition of itself. The same stories over and over, but I guess that’s how it feels for the characters being told all the lies and excuses over and over. The ending was worth the wait

hileahrious

Finally finished this book... it’s frustrating to read, not because it’s bad, but because it was written to be frustrating to read. At least that’s how I see it. Every moment throughout the story reflects the ridiculousness of war and the nonsensical things people will do. I can’t say I really enjoyed it because it’s not a book you’re supposed to enjoy. Heller is kind of a genius. A grand work, I’d say, that will be applicable always, because humans.

Just as good the millionth time as the first, what a classic for a reason. Read this for the first time in the hospital and it's a good book to be trapped with because it's easy to lose the thread or set down and not pick up again until you know it really well. I'm probably also biased because this book came into my life in such a desperate and specific time that it's hard to be objective about it, but who cares anyway? God he's so funny. Audiobook not recommended for this one btw, tried it and it loses most if not all of the charm. Also I think Yossarian is hot, for which I'm giving it an extra half star xoxo

Kaye Barnett

Colleen

2 Stars

I have been trying to fill in the gaps of Classics I have not read, and Catch-22 was one such book. I was eager when I started it but quickly lost any enthusiasm. But I tried so very hard to be engaged with this story. I tried both the hard copy and audio book versions. I sludged through it for over four months! And each time it was more and more tedious to convince myself to read even one more chapter. If this was not such a lauded classic, I would have given up very early on in the story.

Catch-22 is quite possibly the most nonsensical book I have ever read. The story all loosely revolves around Yossarian, a bombardier in WWII who does not want to fly any more missions. The story jumps randomly through time with each chapter focusing on a different character. Very few of the chapters focus on any one character repeatedly which leads to a mind-boggling amount of characters. The description of humor combined with the horror of war made me think of "MASH." Well, it is absolutely NOTHING like MASH; let's get that delusion out of the way. Instead it is an absurd lump of asinine gibberish. Half the time I wondered if the author was sky high on drugs when he wrote this.

I've come to realize that I do not like "unreliable narrators." They just do not suit my reading tastes. But Catch-22 is more than just one unreliable narrator. Every single character in the entire book is crazy. Which gets old after a couple pages. The dialogue (of which there is a lot) is babbled nonsense. It was like reading 500+ pages of "Who's on First." Whatever was not absurd dialogue was massive dense paragraphs of random descriptions. There was one paragraph that was over two pages long! Any comedy is savagely murdered by the complete severing of ties to anything sane or rational. I think somewhere under all the rubbish and ruble there was a good story, but I could not dig through the preposterousness to get to it. Maybe all those readers who love this book were able to see what I could not. Or maybe they just loved all the lewd, detailed descriptions of women's bodies.

I am only bumping it up to two stars because there were a couple of good quotes in there. However they were surrounded by complete and utter nonsense. I could say a lot more about this book, however given the laborious months that I spent trying to read it, I just do not want to spend another minute on it.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 1 Star
Writing Style: 2 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 1 Star
Plot Structure and Development: 1 Star
Level of Captivation: 1 Stars
Originality: 2 Stars

Bouke van der Bijl

This book is absolutely laugh-out-loud hilarious at times, and depressing at other times. It is also quite confusing, and I think it deserves a second reading in a couple years

Matthew Royal

Irritatingly juvenile, though I understand the role it served at a point in US history. DNF

Micah

I wish I could give zero stars.

Joseph Heller should've been told that he talks too much as often as possible. There was no reason this book had to be that long. The concept of telling the story out of chronological order was interesting and did make it so I was less likely to put the book down, but I was so frustrated with how repetitive the book was that I wanted to quit. Literally the only thing keeping me from DNFing this was that it was a prompt-fill. It was supposed to be satire, I get that, but it bordered on incomprehensible at times. All the male characters were annoying, awful, and should have never been romanticized and immortalized by Heller. All the male characters but Chaplain Tappman and Snowden got what they deserved, and I hope the surviving characters died gruesome deaths. I sincerely hope Yossarian died, and I will not be reading the sequel to find out. All the female characters only served three purposes: 1. To be sexually assaulted by the male characters, 2. To be flaunted around by male characters to make other male characters jealous, and 3. To be used as fodder to further a male character's pain. Pathetic.

Nelson Zagalo

"Catch-22" avança com uma premissa de excelência que é um conjunto de regras que se definem como paradoxo lógico. Neste paradoxo temos uma lógica para a ação que é definida por regras que se opõem e que por isso impedem a ação de decorrer. Exemplificando, o protagonista, Yossarian, quer deixar de fazer missões aéreas enquanto em guerra, para o que precisa de ser declarado insano pelo médico da companhia, contudo esta declaração só pode acontecer a pedido do próprio, ora se o soldado está em condições de fazer um pedido de avaliação de insanidade, não pode estar insano, logo não pode deixar de fazer as missões como pretende. Esta armadilha de regras está presente naquilo que no livro é conhecido por artigo nº22 do código militar, e que define a lógica subjacente à vivência em tempo de guerra que Joseph Heller procura trabalhar ao longo de todo o livro, e no fundo conduzir à sua conclusão maior, de que as guerras são em si mesmo paradoxos de lógica.

Não discordando em nada, admirando a premissa e a sua aplicação ao cenário de guerra, assim como estimando a enorme qualidade da escrita e estrutura apresentadas pela obra de Heller, é com muita pena que chego ao final apenas com a racionalização do que li. Ou seja, não senti o universo nem os seus personagens, os seus problemas não me tocaram, nem me demoveram. Li o livro até ao final porque me obriguei, porque é um livro extremamente citado, referenciado em dezenas e dezenas de listas, e por imensas pessoas que respeito, e por isso senti que poderia acontecer alguma espécie de revelação mais perto do seu desfecho. Na verdade pouco mais acontece, sim há um pouco mais de comoção, mas o livro é isto, e no meu caso nunca senti qualquer vontade de virar páginas, nunca senti que queria saber mais sobre Yossarian.

Sim, a guerra é algo sem sentido, obtusa, não existe qualquer lógica que se lhe aplique, está errada do início ao fim. E até podia dizer que por isso julgo que é algo contra o qual devemos lutar com maior sensibilização dos leitores, mas estaria a incorrer em erro. Não foi por isso que não me liguei, não senti qualquer menosprezo de Heller por quem teve ou tem de combater em guerras, antes senti uma elevação acima do quotidiano daquilo que as guerras criam, e uma tentativa de compreender algo que não é compreensível, tornando mesmo a premissa de "Artigo 22" extremamente significante. Contudo, e apesar de reconhecer tal, reconheço-o apenas no seu racional.

Dito isto, poderia ter lido um livro não-ficcional sobre o tema, filosofando sobre a problemática, e talvez me tivesse aproximado mais. A opção de seguir pelo humor, a sátira, não funcionou comigo. Senti-me a olhar para algo vazio. Teria preferido um conto sobre o assunto, que me pudesse dar a compreender o ardil, e não tivesse exigido tantas horas para oferecer o mesmo que tinha oferecido ao fim de 100 páginas. Dito isto, e porque não quero que esta análise sirva para demover alguém de ler uma obra que continua sendo tão amada, passado mais de meio-século, recomendo que leiam o primeiro terço do livro, se não sentirem qualquer ligação, então podem encostar, não vai acontecer nada de muito diferente depois disso.

Publicado no VI: https://virtual-illusion.blogspot.com...

Catch-22 'Never Has a Book Been Laughed and Wept Over So Many Times'

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