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Summary: Read it every year
Review: Assigned this book prior to XMAS break and read it 3 times before class resumed. I read it once per year. I gave up analysis of the book the first time I read it and revelled in the hilarity.
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Summary: A Keeper
Review: I don't know what took me so long to read this. It's been on my must-read list for years now. It's a comic, tragic, disturbing, stream-of-consciousness comment not only on military life, but on humanity. There's a cast of hundreds, so sometimes it's hard to remember who's who, but it all makes sense by the end of the book. This one's a keeper - I'll read it again before long.
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Summary: This book is very funny
Review: This book is a very funny novel about Yossarian, a solder that flies for the Air Force. To get out of the Air Force you need to fly a certan number of missions. But Colonel Cathcart, a leader of Yossarian, keeps raising the number of missions. So, Yossarian is stuck. This book has all kinds of humor, and will keep you laughing. I have never read a better book. I would HIGHLY recommend this book if you are one for humor, action, and more humor.
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Summary: A complex allegory-plus it's hilarious and fun to read
Review: A number of people seemed to harp on the humor, or lack thereof, the characters, the structure, and the obvious anti-war discussion. Many people ignore the fact that all of these character vignettes might mean something. Think about the order in which people die or disappear. Think about the nature of their deaths. I'm one of those people who thinks that people read too much into bad books but I don't think its possible to read too much into this book. It reminds me of the films Full Metal Jacket or Big Lebowski in how they are very fun to watch and extremely deep
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Summary: The Best Book Ever Written
Review: Catch-22 is the best book ever written. Period. It is hilarious, witty, and terrifying. Read it, or what's the point of living at all?
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Summary: What Funny Is
Review: Catch-22 is one of the funniest book ever written. Funny is not just a way of saying it made me giggle. Really funny novels are funny because they provide surprising insight into the way human beings truly are. Among classics Catch-22 is the funniest I've read. Brauner's Love Songs of the Tone-Deaf is the funniest contemporary novel because it has similar amazing insights -- but it's not a war novel, and who knows if it will have the relevance that Catch-22 does fifty years later, but anyway I just love both these books.
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Summary: The greatest war book ever written
Review: Screw Tolstoy, this is the greatest war book ever written. Heller reinvented the novel with a totally unique approach to character development.He lets us get inside the mind of very disturbed people in one of the funniest and clever books ever written. And the dialogue and character studies are still some of the funniest, and most original in print today. A modern classic by any measure.
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Summary: I love those one star reviews but the book is even better!
Review: Catch 22 has joined my list of all-time favorites. The piercing humor and wonderfully drawn characters (especially poor Major Major and the put-upon chaplain) impressed me. Just when I thought Joseph Heller couldn't top himself, he would startle me with yet another brilliant passage. Yes, there are a lot of characters and yes, the book plays with time, but be patient, stick with it and you will be rewarded. Also, the Everyman's edition is beautiful!
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Summary: A Truly Great Book
Review: Catch-22 is one of the best novels of the twentieth century, and an absolute must-read for anybody. No one should live out their miserable little lives without being able to say, "I've read Catch-22." This is a true literary masterpiece, a classic through and through, a book so superior I should be ashamed to even try critiquing it. Joseph Heller shows himself a true master of the English language in this spellbinding satire, his look at the nonsense surrounding the logic of the American military system. Catch-22 is brought to life by a remarkably diverse cast of characters, all of them interwoven into a plot that unfolds and comes together with relentless perfection. Heller lets us see not only through the eyes of his main character, the paranoid bombardier Yossarian, but gives us a glimpse inside dozens of other vivid personalities, plunging us into their thoughts and dreams and hopes and fears and desires. Their stories, told with such a sarcastic and surreal edge, go far beyond the bounds of outrageousness, yet the unarguable truth they represent holds the potency of a maxim. Catch-22 is guaranteed to grip you, entertain you, and astound you. Its story is certainly complex, but so profound as to leave you recalling each and every detail as an individual climax. This book never slows down, never settles into boring normality, and is never to be forgotten by me, nor by a lot of other people -- I'm sure -- who have had the gift of opportunity to be exposed to such magnificent literature.
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Summary: Catch-22: A Great
Review: I, as you have noticed probably from my strong rating of it, contend that this book is wonderful, a view into what humanity really is: an intense, inspeperable blend of humor and tragedy. Not that I have any real expereince with the problems covered in this book, being only 14, but I do appreciate its wry and exitentialist views, which tend to lighten even the darkest scenes (especially the last few chapters in hte book) with its juxtapositioning and genius at its utmost highest. Well, there is my opinion, little good it will do the potential buyer, but I still hope that someone reads this and realizes what a wondrous book this is, and that they should read the book for the sheer humanity that you can extract from it.
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