Rating: 
Summary: Five Stars Are Not Enough
Review: Just wanted to vote for this as best novel of the second half of the twentirth century.
Rating:
Summary: Tough book to read- well worth the effort!
Review: this is a really difficult book to truly follow- however with much effort, and time, the characters, especially Yossarian, are brought to life and compassionate! I attempted to read this about 10 years ago, and put it down early. Now, after finally completing Atlas Shrugged (another tough read that took me two tries), picked it up again, read it through and enjoyed the predicament that poor Yossarian finds himself in (how to get out of flying that next bombing run). One recommendation- see the movie of the same name after reading the book, so that you can appreciate the effort that went into making a movie of it... Also, anyone who says ""catch 22" saw the movie it was great" who didn't read the book can have no clue about the true meaning of Heller's classic!
Rating:
Summary: More than a statement about war
Review: I'm hesitant to call this book an anti-war novel. I think that's too simple of a generalization for a novel that deserves a much more in-depth look. For me, Catch-22 in about the human condition which leads us to experience fear, selfishness, anger, anguish, loneliness, pain, and every other imaginable emotion. I think the greatest thing about this novel is that Heller, in about 90% of the novel, seems unconcerned with passing judgement and instead chooses to give us the raw reality of these characters and lets the rest be decided by the reader.Heller creates a chaotic athmosphere filled by exotic characters that are never censored. The narrative is consistently odd but it never seems to stray too far from its purpose, or plot. The first three quarters of the book are hillarious, followed by a somber, pensative tone completely brutal and unforgiving. You don't realize how quickly it goes from a satirical, cynical place to a completely harsh reality. The transition is amazing and the result a complete shock to the reader. This is a wonderful piece of literature. Heller lets his characters speak for themselves and he lets their actions create the moral statements of the novel. That in itself is a huge accomplishment. This is a great book regarldess of your view on war.
Rating: 
Summary: A Comedy though a Tragedy
Review: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is a great book. In the beginning, the book starts great, though it seemed that some of the jokes were no that funny. Many of the characters were great and some of them were comparable. There were many hilarious scenes that I thought were great in the novel. Though at times, character's seemed very ignorant and immature. This novel is also great, for having an aspect of how many people that are in war have. There must be many individuals in war that might feel the way that Yossarian felt. Though this book is a comedy, Heller made a mixture of Comedy in the beginning and Tragedy in the end.
Rating:
Summary: Classic anti-war novel
Review: This satirical novel tells the interconnected stories of Yossarian the bombadier and the men who serve in a military camp on an Italian island during WWII. Nearly every character in this story is crazy, some because they have become unbalanced through their horrific battle experiences and others because they serve so well as functionaries in a system that has normalized the killing of other people. Yossarian retains his sanity through a tight focus on the necessity of his own survival. He becomes a hero by ultimately refusing to capitulate to the forces that demand him to sublimate this most basic and healthy of natural urges to the convenience of a system of death based on the spurious logic of "Catch-22," a series of mutually exclusive choices that make true choice impossible and lead one by default down the most destructive path. This is a very funny book, although I felt that some of the more outlandish satire didn't sit well with the more graphically realistic elements of the novel. The narrative is presented in a disjointed manner that heightens the chaos of the situation.
Some may be put off by the manner in which Heller attacks the mentality of war without any consideration for the specific conditions that may have provided some justification for the prosecution of WWII.
Rating:
Summary: One of Those Books.
Review: I read Catch-22 on the beach before many a Fijian sunset. The fact that i couldn't take my eyes from the page to admire the surreal postcard display before me has to say something about this book. I stayed up til four each morning because i never wanted to stop reading. This is just ONE OF THOSE BOOKS. Heller's vision is of such a complete story, a beyond-history, where events are visited and revisited and new light is shed on them, but the omnipotent power of the author is felt in the filtering of accurate details throughout. I just found Heller's control over his narrative mesmerising. Aside from this structural point, Catch-22 would be nothing without its characters. I don't remember ever delighting so much in the exploits of so many characters. An entire air-force base, virutally, is evoked in chapter after chapter of brilliant scenes and funny histories. Watch out for: Hungry Joe, Major Major, Milo, Orr, Doc Daneeka, The Chaplain, Sheissekopf, aw heck, i won't list the rest, but they're all good! Particularly relevant now, and in any time of war in the future (sadly, the fact is inevitable), is Heller's portrayal of the madness of war. Anyone can say it, anyone can glorify it, but Heller was actually there. He served as a bombadier (Yossarian, his protagonist, does too). But its not just the war, its any government, any big business, any SYSTEM, which oppresses you, beats you into submission and makes you do its dirty work at the expense of your life love and liberty. The SYSTEM that you can't escape from, no matter what - and as soon as you want to escape, it uses this against you to shackle you back to it again. Despite this, though, like other truly great books, you don't get the sense of being badgered by it. You laugh along with the third-person narrator and you read about characters and story. You don't ever feel that you're getting a book of straight ideas: always a dry, suffocating thing. He isn't telling us a anything, he isn't teaching us anything, he's showing us something - and allowing us to make of it what we will. Heller has made a book with an overriding theme, a satirical novel, but he hasn't written another Bible. He presents a situation, he doesn't pretend to have all the answers. The only thing he knows for sure, is that war doesn't solve anything. There are no words to describe the sort of funny Heller's book is, except maybe laugh-out-loud. I don't remember laughing so much at a book. Like Catcher in the Rye, Catch-22 is a book which will make you feel throughout and after you're finished both happy and sad: happy that a book like this exists, though shocked that it fell into your hands, but sad over the fact that you doubt you'll ever find another as good. If in doubt, though, try Vladamir Nabokov's Lolita and Catcher in the Rye. Remarkable, lyrical, hilarious books are indeed hard to come by.
Rating:
Summary: The Funniest World War Two Novel Around
Review: I wasn't sure what I got myself into when I chose this book for my World History book report. I sorta thought I might have chosen the wrong book. That is, until I actually started reading. This is the funniest book I have ever read and the only one to make me laugh out loud. This book tells the tale of Yossarian, a bombardier captain, stationed off Italy. The thing that separates this novel from every other war novel is that all of the characters are so dysfunctional: Yossarian, the main character, doesn't want to fight. He even tries to convince his superiors that the place he was supposed to bomb already was. Orr, his best friend, carries crab apples in his cheeks. Chief White Halfoat keeps threatening to die of Pneumonia if people don't pay attention to him and the soldier who sees everything twice, sees everything twice. This book is incredibly funny one moment and incredibly sad the next. The horrors of war penetrate the wall of humor in this book quite frequently. Because all of the characters are so weird and cartoonish, it makes everything much more depressing than if a character in a less zany book dies. They aren't supposed to die, they are larger than life. Everything is displayed in a very sarcastic tone, from the Major who states "Whenever I am out, I'm in, and whenever I am in I'm out" to Milo, who contracts his planes to bomb and defend the same bridge.
This book cannot be read without cracking a smile and is a much needed change of pace from the other books in this genre. This should be required reading for anyone and everyone with a sense of humor.
Rating:
Summary: One of America's Greatest Novels
Review: Catch-22 is incredible. It is full of surprises, and twists you wouldn't expect a war novel to have. It gives you the chance to know each of the characters, and at times you even feel like your one of them. I highly suggest that everyone read this novel, it is one of the greatest novels you will ever read in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Emotional rollercoaster
Review: One of the best books I have ever read. One minute you're doubled over in laughter and just when you think the book is hilarious, Heller ripes you apart with a juxtoposition of tragedy. The editorial review stated that reading this book used to be a right of passage - considering today's world events, I wish it still was.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm not the right type to enjoy this novel
Review: You have to be a certain type of person to like this novel. I imagine many people are that type of person. I am not. For me, the problem with Catch-22 was that Heller never developed the characters in a way that made me like or dislike or otherwise feel a certain way about them. Most of his descriptions of the characters focused on superficial qualities; he hardly developed the *character* of the characters (other than Major Major) at all. These superficial traits, however, do not have universal appeal. Different people have different opinions of these superficial qualities, and my opinions are evidently very different from Heller's. Take General Peckem. It was obvious that Peckem was supposed to be the epitome of annoying characters in the novel, based on his name alone. Yet, when we finally met him, I hardly found him annoying at all. In fact, I found him rather efficient. Maybe there's a certain honesty about not presenting characters in a way designed to influence the reason's opinion of them. But Catch-22 is a satire, and a satire depends on the reader feeling a certain way about the characters. Much of the satire didn't work for me because I didn't share Heller's feelings about the charaters. Now, having said all that, I will say that I think most people, especially military and other action types, will share Heller's opinions, and will understand the satire. The other problem I had with Catch-22 is it's lack of temporal continuity. It seemed that you could read most of the chapters in the book in any order and it would make just as much sense, which is not much. Also, there was a ridiculous overuse of a certain figure of speech (mostly used to describe Milo). On the good side, the book was quite funny, and the satire was amusing where it made sense to me.
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