Rating: 
Summary: Colorful cast in a stagnant tale
Review: I found the book, like a majority of the characters in Catch-22, crazy. Basically, after 80 pages, the story was still stagnating. There were plenty of quirky, rebellious characters but all the absurdity just didn't come together for me. Yeah, there was Yossarian who was paranoid about getting killed, Hungry Joe who yelled in his sleep, Aadvark the navigator who couldn't navigate... So?I kept asking myself, what the hell were all of them doing? Where was the story going? Nowhere. The characters were simply busy being eccentric amidst the madness of war. Which perhaps was what Heller was trying to portray. Afterall, it was only 10 years after WWII when the book was first published and I guess it connected with a lot of readers then. The message behind the book is still relevant, no doubt - but apart from the anti-war and anti-establishment theme, I felt Heller didn't have much else to offer. Mildly humorous at times, but sadly, the storyline just didn't progress with enough purpose for my taste.
Rating: 
Summary: Yossarian Lives
Review: I haven't read much fiction since high school and then I was forced to read. But being an avid reader of non-fiction myself, I wanted to turn things around and give fiction another try. I chose as my debut work Heller's Catch-22. I couldn't be more pleased with my choice. The book is just brilliant and very funny. I found myself laughing out loud so many times. Heller has an amazing talent in describing people. By describing someone's appearance and habits it makes you think you have actually met the person, as with the Colonel who was described as someone who uses words such as apogee and panacea. Reading the first one hundred pages or so I felt a little overwhelmed with so many characters. At that point I thought the book was going to be just that, an endless list of characters, but the best was still to come. All the insanity of war is revealed in an outrageously funny and tragic way. I have a feeling folks in Washington DC should be reading Catch-22 right now. It became sort of a tradition among reviewers of Catch-22 to pick their favorite character. For me it's a hard toss between Milo, Orr, and Yossarian, of course; but I pick Orr. Leonardo Alves - Houghton, Michigan - February 2003
Rating:
Summary: Great re-write of Voyage Au Bout De La Nuit
Review: That's about it. Louis-Ferdinand Celine wrote Voyage Au Bout De La Nuit in 1952. Mr Heller Americanised the setting and the dialogue but the entire book, the ideas, the storyline is virtually identical to V.A.B.D.L.N.
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Novel of All Time
Review: This is my title: and I believe it. The greatest novel of all time. The reviews below will doubtlessly get further into the more complicated issues--the themes, the meaning of certain characters, the fractured chronology--but the fact remains that this will be, for a great number of people, the most profound work they ever read. Catch-22 is a riot from start to finish. There are plenty of hilarious books, but few that will make you laugh as often or as embarrassingly loud as this one. The book, however, is not just about comedy--that's just another level on top of the heartfelt sadness that consumes the book's greatest heroes (Yossarian and Dunbar). The true meaning lies somewhere between the moral decisions of every character of the book--Yossarian's decision to live through the war or die trying; Dunbar's decision to spare all innocents at all costs; Col. Cathcart's decision to win the war at all costs; Doc Daneeka's decision to complain about the war while doing nothing to counter the immoral acts taking place all around him. It's a book for rebels; fine. It's an anti-government book, anti-war book; fine. It's hysterical, depressing, life-affirming, epic, fascinating, and, at a basic, human level, true. Fine. The fact remains: Catch-22 has more to offer than any book I have ever read. Try the first chapter and you'll know it's for you; it's the fastest 463 pages you'll ever read; the world's greatest combination of comedy and tragedy in one work. I can only gush so long. Just read the ... thing.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book with Very Dark Humor...
Review: Catch-22 is very funny and entertaining. I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys off-the-wall humor with a heavy dose of cynicism. The book revolves around a war but that is hardly the point of the story. The war serves as more of the background that the author uses playfully to get his messages across. The book is filled with very entertaining stories of our hero off to battle, trying to fight his way out. He tries everything only to find that war, and life, are full of catch-22s. Overall, this is a great story that relishes the dark side of humour. I would recommend it to anyone who has a liking to war stories and/or strange stories such as those by Kurt Vonnegut. Side Note: if you are looking for more serious war novels then you should consider the Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer or the Gathering Storm by Winston Churchill. Both are great books that deal more with the real character of war.
Rating:
Summary: A little bit of everything.
Review: It really is a smattering of all the concepts that makes a great literary work. Bursting at the seams with different themes, I found Catch-22 to be uproariously funny yet awfully saddening at the same time. You can be laughing your head off and pitying the poor soldiers simutaneously.
The range of emotions this book displays and yanks right out of the reader is quite impressive. I'm not a fan of war-related books because it's just not my forte - but Catch-22 is definately an exception.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books ever!
Review: This book is probably one of the best books I've ever read. Heller does such a great job portraying the characters complex emotions. It's simply engrossing and I couldn't get enough of it. A must-have and possibly one of the best books ever written.
Rating:
Summary: In response to those who would detract
Review: Several reviews on this page, even the ones that label this masterpiece as a 5-star novel, fail to accurately grasp the book's significance on a moralistic level. True, it can be said that it is an anti-war statement, but that is a shallow interpretation at best. It questions the establishment of course, but in a sense so do all novels. Its comedy is tremendous, but again, Catch-22 goes far deeper. Catch-22 is perhaps the greatest novel of our time because it explores humanity from a perspective and depth of insight never before seen. The significance of man in the modern world, the ironic yet inexplicably logical meanderings of man's mind, the wittiness, insecurity, hope, despair, failure, and, above all, the ultimate triumph that humanity possesses is utterly represented. This novel has never failed to make me laugh, cry, despair, and ultimately to appreciate life. Humanity is something to cherish, and Heller's Yossarian is the tangible embodiment of that ideal.
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Summary: Catch 22 and the 1950's
Review: The novel Catch 22, by Joseph Heller is dismissed by many as being a book simply about World War 2, which on the surface, it is. However, after analyzing the novel more thoroughly, one finds that not only does it describe WW2, but it also serves as a social commentary on life at the time. Written in the early sixties, Catch 22 accuratly describes life in the 1950's using Yossarian as the voice of a generation. The novel also does an excellent job juxtaposing the of fear of death with the uncertainty and often times irony in life.
This novel is a must read for anyone interested in fifties society, culture, the atomic bomb or the second world war.
Rating: 
Summary: Catch-22
Review: In my words Catch-22 is overrated. This book could have been summed up in one chapter, and in all its wordiness the only point is that war is extremely boring. Although each chapter had something exciting, Joseph Heller droned on relentlessly about a single character. The climax of the book is when Yossarian is up in the bomber on a mission to Bologna and the gunners guts fall out, because a piece of flak went into his stomach. The whole time the gunner is crying out "I'm cold, I'm cold!" One side of the book that I liked was how Joseph Heller made each chapter about one person, which makes it slightly better, because the cast is always growing. Each character is unique, and I value that, but his subject matter poor. All in all I had to force myself to read this book.
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