Catch-22

Rating:
Summary: Very Amusing
Review: This was the most humorous book I've read recently! Very entertaining from beginning to end! It is about a World War II bombardier, Captain Yossarian, who desparately wants to be sent home but he is caught in the military's Catch-22. Catch-22 states that one can only be excused from flying missions on the grounds of insanity; one must request to be excused; one who requests to be excused is presumably in fear of his life, thus proof of his sanity so therefore he must continue to fly; one who is insane would not make the request and would continue to fly the missions despite the fact that he would be excused from them if he were to ask. The typical no-win situation. There are many characters presented in this book, adding to the confusion and enhancing the hilarity. The plot...well, there doesn't seem to be much of a plot but once the reader becomes caught up in the circular logic of the military, the plot doesn't seem important anyway. There are grisly moments of realism interspersed with the absurb humor. The time-line of the story is not chronological, but somehow it all makes sense. Throughout the book, I found myself cheering for Yossarian and his efforts, hoping that in all the confusion he would come out a winner in the end. If you enjoyed the T.V. series M*A*S*H, then you're sure to love this book as the writers of the sitcom were inspired by Joseph Heller's amazingly bizarre tale.

Rating:
Summary: Horrible for Being So Great
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book. The book was very witty and had me laughing several times. The story wasn?t anything special, in fact it was sad, but the author wrote in such a way that that made the book humorously enjoyable. The concept of the catch-22 was strewn throughout the book, and the apparently insane main character of the book, Yosarrian, proved to be one of the few sane characters in the book. I saw two weaknesses in the book. First, there are too many characters. I could not keep track of all the generals, colonels, captains and majors. Second, the book was trashy in parts. These parts of the book were unnecessary and did not settle well with me. With all that said, the book was horrible for being so great.

Rating:
Summary: hey idiot, did you mean 5 stars???
Review: this is just to ounteract the high-school girl who wrote a glowing review but forgot to pick a rating, making it 1 star by default. try to be more cognazant next time.

Rating:
Summary: It was love at first sight.
Review: Catch-22 is Joseph Heller's satire that pokes fun at the military. In it, the army has absolute power, dictating the lives and fates of the men in its power. The military constantly increases the required missions for the men. Colonel Cathcart, the person who raises the mission requirement, is risking the lives of his men in order to impress his superior officers. This reflects the futility of their situation. The reason they risk their lives is not to help the country. Instead, they fight for the greed and ambitions of one man.

The main character, Yossarian, is constantly afraid that he is going to die. People think he is insane, but the fact that he wants to leave and survive makes him possibly the sanest person there. Each chapter in the novel centers around another character in the military (though, with few exceptions, everything leads back to Yossarian and his plight). From Major Major Major's issues with his name to Colonel Scheisskopf's fixation with parades, these characters and their situations are very interesting and amusing.

While hilarious and amusing, Catch-22 does have a deeper meaning. It talks of the futility of war and the powerlessness that men can have against bureaucracies such as the military. Yossarian's reflections on life and morality in the midst of chaos are surprisingly deep.

Rating:
Summary: There was always a catch, and that was catch-22
Review: This isn't the type of book who's rating tends mainly on opinion. But more on how you read and studied it. While as everyone says it's a war novel, it's a metaphor on corporate America. It is a difficult read, but if you study it it will prove worthwhile. Reading with someone who knows the book also helps. It does help you become well read because of it's being one of a kind. You learn from it, not every book's hero is the ultimate anti-hero. Not every book is a paradox upon it's self.

This could be read just for the humour. When you think about it though you wonder, why am I laughing, this is so dark. It's the way of writing only expert authors such as Heller can do that makes the book that way.

Who you are also is necessart for the book. You need to be well read to begin with to get the most from it. You need to be willing to take your time. You need to not care if there are 5 pages where the characters swear 24 times. You need to be able to deal with this book. You could be a 13 year old mature high-school student or a 30 (or 50) year old adult. You need the inner maturity and perserveriance to do this book what it disearves.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and Funny and Original! -- Don't Miss It!
Review: Yossarian's in love with the Chaplain. But that has nothing to do with anything, now does it? Joseph Heller's World War II satire is one of the funny, most intelligently written pieces of literature I've ever had the good fortune to come across. Supremely funny, Catch-22 makes a statement about war, about the nature of fighting, and makes it loud. Few authors have ever been able to hold my attention so completely as Joseph Heller has with this novel, through his comedy (re: the court martial), his characters (Major Major Major Major, for one), and his insane storyline. Yossarian easily makes it into my list of top 10 book characters of all time, with the rest of the cast not being too far down the line themselves. If you have a spare day, if you value good literature, if you haven't had a long, hard, exhausting laugh in a good while, pick this book up. That's an order! Also recommended: [e-mail] by Tom Grimes, The Losers Club by Richard Perez

Rating:
Summary: This book will never lose its power or poignancy
Review: Catch-22 is one of those books that everyone ought to read, because it is so effective at chronicling one of the strangest sides of the human condition. The book is hilarious throughout; the result of this is that it's much easier and more fun to read than most anti-war books, and the violence and horror are much more affecting. Absurdist and pointed at the same time, this book is much more potent than many other more serious war novels. Heller's writing style is not very literary, but it gives the book more of an urgency and a realism. Everyone should read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Mindblowing.
Review: This book is nothing short of AWESOME ! It's cutting-edge. It's profound. It's hilarious. It's dangerously serious and seriously dangerous. It's earthshaking. It has no comparison. One in millions. An absolute Must-Read, if you know anything about books... It can be a life-changer and an experience worth going through. Do yourself a favour and read it. You'll never forget it. It will change your perception of insanity forever.

Rating:
Summary: HAH review
Review: Catch 22 captivated my attention from the very beginning. I'm not one to read books and enjoy them, but this one was different. It showed the stupidity of war and hateful situations with satire. Yossarian, the main character, leads us through his thoughts and actions, basically through a maze of situations unbeknownst to any but an unlucky sane soldier. There are times when you are so confused and enraged with what the way hierarchy decides things, you want to get inside their heads and figure out what they are thinking.

We are reminded through Yossarian and other characters, Hungry Joe especially, that what may seem to be nonsense could very well be sensible, and what is known to be good could be bad. Hungry Joe reacts the opposite way you would expect a person to, when things are horrible he is happy, and when things are fine, he is miserable.

Rating:
Summary: Catch-22 (A Way Out)
Review: Joseph Heller's Catch-22 has been seen as a controversial but classic twentieth century novel because of its rebellious nature and questioning of authority that easily places it into the social context of the American 1960s. Through the main character, Yossarian, and his various situations the author seems to comment on the individual use of morality as a counter to the governmental use of authority and power in a military bureaucracy. Yossarian, a soldier in World War II, and his squadron's fate are placed in the hands of a group of leaders who are willing to sacrifice their men's lives for personal gain in the form of recognition. Heller seems to use this situation to comment on the authoritative use of bureaucracy in that the men are led into futile situations by a bureaucracy that not only discards logic, but also has no regard for its defenders. Yossarian and his fellow soldiers must use the illogical laws of their war bureaucracy to their advantages in order to survive. They are all subject to the law of Catch-22.

Heller's Catch-22 ultimately defines situations in which all of the solutions of any given situation have negative results. The author uses Catch-22 throughout his novel to show how logic can be circumvented in order to force Yossarian and his squadron to suffer through numerous personal situations and remain at war in a sort of bureaucratic military entrapment. Catch-22 is used when Yossarian, as an instinct of preservation, tries to be discharged from the military-or at least tries to avoid combat-by claiming that he is insane. But by claiming that he is insane, he is therefore seen as sane because no reasonable person would want to fly bombing missions. Again, Catch-22 is used against Yossarian when he is offered the choice to be court-martialed or be released upon his approval of the policies of Colonels Cathcart and Korn. The Catch-22 is that the policies require the men to fly eighty missions before being sent home and thereby jeopardizes their lives.

Perhaps the most important point that Heller makes in Catch-22 is that there is an alternative to Catch-22. At the end of the novel, Yossarian discounts Catch-22 by opting for a different way out of war. He deserts his unit and goes to Sweden, a neutral country, and rejects the military bureaucracy. By this, Heller seems to say that while Catch-22-a contradictory condition of circular reasoning that holds its sufferer in its irrational environment and benefits only those who have made up the law-may seem inescapable; there is ultimately a way out. Heller depicted World War II with a sense of disenchantment with the military. This may be what made Catch-22 so controversial during the Vietnam War (and in the wake of what was considered The Good War). Yossarian not only questions authority, but he finds an ultimate solution through desertion. This is definitely not something that the government would have wanted young American draftsmen reading, however, it is valuable in its depiction of morality in the face of illogical or immoral situations such as war.