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Summary: A Different Kind of War Novel
Review: Catch-22 achieves something that few novels manage to do. Like David Sedaris and Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller manages to create a story that is both profound and humorous at the same time. The unique combination of real tragedy and outrageous action raises Catch-22 above ordinary novels. Fortunately, rather than include humor for the sole sake of entertainment, Catch-22 uses it to provide a look into human civilization. Why does the "crazy" activities of this squadron resonate so deeply in the reader? Because its real--life is crazy, it doesn't always make sense, and this insanity necessary to how we function. War in itself is part of this vicious cycle of insanity. Heller understands all this and Catch-22 manages capture the essence of these facts of life in the story of bomber Yossarian.Heller's novel moves swiftly and the prose is short and sharp. Most of the action is accomplished through incredible dialouge--the scene where Yossarian is scream at Arfy to move back from the nose is an excellent example, the reader understands the desperation and the exasperation. The story moves without regard to chronology--you get snippets of one event then you jump somwhere else, and are surprised when the previous event is explained in full. Heller manages to maintain this effect with such skill that by the end of the novel you know everthing that happened, why it happened, and the order in which it happened. The seeming lack of order to the novel effectively enhances the feelings of insanity so integral to the novel. Catch-22 is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It's fun, meaningful, and entertaining--and you'll probably put it down with a new perspective on why we do the often times "crazy" things we do.
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Summary: The Apex
Review: Despite a bit of sluggishness in the fourth fifth of this book, Heller managed to create a truly great book in a manner nobody had ever successfully pulled off before. Like the equally great SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE--really the only significant novel thematically similar to CATCH-22 written in anything like Heller's style--CATCH-22 is usually labeled an anti-war novel. I disagree. I think both are pro-humanity books. Heller and Vonnegut, like Voltaire centuries earlier, both seem to have reached a place when writing these classics where they could no longer stomach the absurdities of their day. It wasn't just war that nauseated them; it was the ease--the eagerness--in which they saw men become animals. They are, unfortunately, depressing books. Great books, but depressing nonetheless.
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Summary: Oh the Stunning Glory!
Review: Last summer, I read this book somewhat reluctantly. I figured I should read more classic books like that for my own personal literacy level, not suspecting I would enjoy it overmuch. However, after about 10 pages, I was delighted to find that reading it was one of the better experiences of my sedentary life. Sure, it's long, but regretfully not long enough, for it is so glorious that I wish it would not end. And now I make it a tradition to re-read Catch 22 every summer (along with the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, which I also highly recommend). Joseph Heller brings us over 40 characters, each with distinctive attributes. The plot is jumpy, but for some reason, it works. Heller keeps what is usually a mundane subject exceptionally interesting, and truly proves that writing is an art. Read this. It's funny too.
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Summary: Crazy Yossarian...
Review: Heller classic is very well written, it contains wittiness, funny situations, and other life threating ones. Written at the time of world war two and lived in Europe. The book is not always easy to follow, since it jumps from one thing to another, but that what makes it even better, and more interesting to continue reading. Yossarian, the main character is just something else. He tries in everyway to get out of the war, he spends a lot of time in the hospital pretending to be ill, he even pretends to be the son of another family who has been greatly injuired in the war... A classic to be read...
Rating:
Summary: Good Stuff
Review: Everyone must read this book. I had to buy a new copy because mine got all ratty from carrying it around and yelling phrases at people in the mall
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Summary: clever book
Review: the writing in this book is very well done. it is very funny and i can see the influnce that it has had on comdey from monty python to the simpsons. still for some reason i had troubles finnishing it. i think it was the story that failed to capture my imagination. the author dives into the insanities of mans dual nature with a clever use of the english language manipulating the mind through masterful sentences. very well done.
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Summary: required reading!
Review: This is a very thought provoking novel. Also recommend--In-Law Drama.
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Summary: One of the 100 best American novels
Review: We read "Catch-22" in our "alternative" high school back in the 60's. It was just as the Viet Nam War was rising to its shocking crest, people were rioting in the streets, the young were questioning everything and rebelling, the draft was taking older brothers and friends, and it was a very crazy time. We asked the teacher who selected the novel and who had served in World War II "Is this an accurate representation of the madness of war?" He replied that, in his experience, it was. After recently re-reading Heller's novel, I realized that this book wasn't, as we had studied it, just about the madness of war. Sure, that was foremost on our minds at the time the book was published. But Heller really caught the moral dilemma of an individual caught up in the mob hysteria of war, where the rules of civilization and laws are temporarily and deliberately suspended by the authorities. The key paragraph, for me, is: "Man was matter, that was Snowden's secret. Drop him out 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. That was Snowden's secret. Ripeness was all." In other words, Man is no more than meat and bone EXCEPT for a brief period when he is alive...and if he does something to preserve his soul. This is deep and perceptive. At the end of "Catch-22", Yossarian is faced with a tempting choice. He has, however, learned something from the horrors and insanity. His decision takes into account not only his personal safety, but goes beyond to the greater good. He has risen. For that reason, "Catch-22" is more than just an amusing novel, a bestseller and the novel that gave birth to M*A*SH*. Yossarian's moral dilemma is one each of us must ponder, whenever we choose to go to war. I think this is one of the best 100 American novels.
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Summary: In life, there is no plot
Review: Many people complain that this book has no plot, at least not in any intelligible order, except that Yossarian wishes to keep from being killed at any moment by anyone and anything around him. He's neurotic, and at the same time the saniest one living, because he'd rather die than be killed. This book is absurd, I think, not for reasons of humor, but because of the subject matter it portrays. In fact, it may be more reasonable to show war as absurd than to show war as rational. I found this to be one of the most endearingly fiendish books I've ever read, and more life-like than I originally viewed it as. It is not about a plot, for life has no central plan (but rather a disorganized bunch of disparate events), but about the characters and people that fill it. This book is about the idiosyncracy, absurdity, contradiction, and illogic of personalities, or lack thereof. In this paradoxical way, Catch-22 seems to me to be bizarrely one of the more honest depictions of life as we know it.
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Summary: A great modern novel
Review: Although it lacks the credibility of Faulkner and Hemingway's works, Catch 22 is one of the better modern novels. It is extremely ironic and funny, and stands out as both a piece of social commentary and art. Books like this are great for people who like to read, because they easier to read than some more serious literature, but are thought provoking and artistic. I read this at the beach a couple years ago in a few days, and annoyed everyone by giggling all day.
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