Catch-22

Rating:
Summary: ONe of my favorites
Review: I didn't know what this book was about when i bought it just that it was supposedly a classic. After the first few chapters I was so glad i bought it. This is probably one of the funniest books i've ever read. It is full of dry humor and paradoxes. And it also makes you think quite a bit about the rationality of some things. I hope everybody reads this book.

Rating:
Summary: Funny, thought-provoking and somewhat disturbing.
Review: This is one of those books that bothered me while I was reading it. Sure it was funny but I also felt insulted as I read. Nonetheless, I always picked it up the next day and read on.

Let me start by saying that I preferred M*A*S*H much more because it didn't take itself too seriously. It was raunchier and 100 times funnier. Catch-22 simply tries way too hard. The paradoxical, catch-22 situations are too many and grow tiresome. The whole book is that way! It could have been about 200 pages shorter!

The insulting part is how military professionals are all portrayed as complete and utter idiots. Sure, all the characters are very quirky and idiosyncratic, but the military pros are absolutely unlikable and seem to possess no redeeming qualities like the others. As one who has read a great deal of WWII history this was bothersome. I understand the literary technique but it's just too much.

READ M*A*S*H INSTEAD. SAVE THIS FOR LATER. YOSSARIAN LIVES.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Lots of humor and humorous situations make this a fun read. Heller seems to favor adverbs more than most writers, but this may be because they were more in style decades ago when this was written. Speaking of decades, Heller has not been dead for fifty years, as the review below states. He just died last year. Read Catch-22 if you enjoy satire.

Rating:
Summary: possibly the greatest novel of the post-war era
Review: catch-22 is the best novel to come out of the second world war, and plausibly the greatest american novel of the twentieth century. heller's career as a writer was somewhat over-shadowed by this pyrotechnic debut. his prose here is as insane as the subject-matter, he uses a whirling style that lifts you in and out of scenes in a non-linear fashion that suits the helter-skelter emotional experience of the war the book describes.

catch-22 concerns one captain yossarian and his attempts to get out of bombing raids. yossarian doesn't really care about the good guys versus bad guys aspect of battle. as far as he is concerned everyone is out to kill him and he must survive no matter what.

the novel is genuinely hilarious. there is a great joke on every page, but heller also has the ability to turn on a sixpence. one moment the reader is crying at some piece of head-twisting anti-logic, the next the reader is crying at some horror... and then back again.

when i first read it, i at one point had to slam it shut and throw it on the floor, so emotionally involved was i in the death of a character... but i immediately picked it up again, because it is utterly gripping.

if you are a first-timer, i warn you you will be shocked, you will be incredulous, you will laugh like an idiot whilst you're commuting. but above all you'll be dazzled by a genuine slice of real genius.

Rating:
Summary: Simply Un-summable
Review: At the moment I write this review, it is the 341th one, so there are few chances anybody will read it!

Anyway, this book is brilliant, both powerful and hysterically funny. It has been said it's about WWII. I believe it to be more universal, even more than just about war, we delve into dehumanisation and mental insanity here. And yet you'll laugh, I promise, money-back garantee.

The book has its own timeline, yossarian's (the main character). I haven't "studied" the structure or printed graphs about it :) but this aspect of the book is just unique, and brings magic to it.

Nothing more can be said, you'll just have to read it now, and maybe that's another definition of the now famous Catch-22.

Rating:
Summary: "BRILLIANT"
Review: This book ALWAYS makes my Top 5 List

Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest works of all time
Review: Form follows function, chaotic, nonsensical war, chaotic, nonsensical logic (though consistant). Great piece of dark humor wrapped around a tale of loss where, at the end, the thinking man is left by himself, moving away from humanity. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Paradox
Review: Whenever the men think they have found the perfect solution to a problem, an illogical predicament--a catch--defeats them. The men can be grounded if they are insane, but if they recognize the insanity of their missions, they are sane--and must fly more missions. When Yossarian and his friends begin asking clever questions to disrupt boring educational sessions, Colonel Korn decides that only those who never ask questions may ask questions. When they want to discuss a problem with Major Major, they are allowed into his office only when he is out. Even when Yossarian is offered an apparently harmless deal that would allow him to go home as a hero, there is a catch. He must betray his friends by praising the officers who caused many of them to die. Life is reduced to one frustrating paradox after another.

Rating:
Summary: Not about war at all
Review: Catch-22 isn't really a critique about war or about the military in specific. It's an allegorical critique of Capitalism and the whole Western system. In the twilight of socialism that has descended since the fall of Communism, the book's critique seems unduly harsh, but the warning message is worth remembering.

What is "Catch-22?" There are at least a dozen examples in the book, and seem very difffernt. What they have in common is that each one is really saying "the rules of the system prevent reform of the system." Examples include "you can only enter the Major's office when he isn't in it," and "you can get out of the war if you're crazy, but if you ASK, it proves you're not crazy."

Milo, the arch Capitalist, is in many ways the worst villain in the book. Milo traffics with the enemy, steals medical supplies (leaving his worthless IOU), and even contracts to bomb his own side. The corruption of Milo's money reaches far up the chain of command, and many of the worst absurdities are tracable to Milo's schemes.

The only way around the system is to break the rules -- to overthrow it. The new recruits who throw out the personal effects of the dead man in Yossarian's tent show how in a small way; Orr demonstrates it in a large way, and the fact that Orr ends up in Sweden points to socialism as a solution to the problems of the capitalist world.

Obviously, in today's world, the example of Sweden doesn't look so appealing, and the Capitalist West has shown substantial ability to reform itself inside its own rules. Still, the book is a great read, and the lesson is worth learning, if only as an example of what we have avoided -- and need to continue to avoid.

Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: A little long, a little tedious, but ultimately rewarding! Heller dances between sanity and insanity, comedy and tragedy in this great read. The cast tends to create confusion in the beginning, but if you intend to read this one within a short amount of time, the text will clear itself out and you're likely to enjoy this story about power and control during the second World War.