Catch-22

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious, and even more
Review: After I read this book I had to expand my list of best comedy books from four to five - to Ilf&Petrov Twelve Chairs, Jaroslav Hasek "Brave Soldier Schvejk", Jerome K. Jerome's "Three in a boat" and Douglas Adams's "HitchHiker" this book had to be added. It's extremely funny and utterly insane.

I must add that being a retired Israeli Air Force HQ officer makes me enjoy the book even more since some of the developments described I have witnessed in likewise form in live.

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant comedy about WWII
Review: In today's society, the term catch-22 has become a cliche, however, when reading the novel, one becomes more aware of its true meaning and the desperate situation in puts many pilots, such as Yossarian in.

Heller's novel Catch-22 is a satircal comedy about world war II in which Yossarian, the main character, is frustrated because people he hasn't met keep trying to kill him while he is bombing their town. Although the plot sounds a little odd, Heller ties together stories of pilots in Yossarian's squadron into his own life to allow his readers to realize that war is truly a horrible thing.

Catch-22 is a satire in that not only is it funny and ironic, but the situations presented are exaggerated, though not made up. From Milo Minderbender's philosphy of "everybody has a share" to Cathcart's attempt to avoid religion and God in prayers, readers will find themselves laughing, a little shocked, and touched.

I highly recommend this novel not just for war novel readers, but for everyone who is interested in reading a novel truly worth the time.

Rating:
Summary: Booby Trap of the World
Review: Undoubtedly, this book is a modern classic. To describe and elucidate all peculiarities of its style, allusions (Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, etc.), plot, characters and its influence on the modern culture and life one will need to write another book of similar volume. So I'll be short: the novel is excellent, a must read.

It starts as a brilliant satire showing absurdity of a war machine and its human components. In times the story is so funny that it is preferably to read in solitude in order not to exasperate people with irrepressible laughter. But in the second half of the novel the festive mode metamorphoses: a hilarity becomes a horror of a man ensnared by a booby trap. The events and orders are crazy but the blood of friends is absolutely real. The black comedy, taking place in Italy during World War II, transforms into a hideous picture of the human society, where a life of an ordinary person signifies nothing being only a card in heinous game of rapacious and salacious potentates. In one of the last chapters Rome, the Eternal City, appears as an apocalyptic vision of impending destruction of the iniquitous world. The marvelous novel of Joseph Heller warns us: Be vigilant!

Rating:
Summary: great
Review: I loved it. Couldn't put it down. There is no way to descibe this book except to say "read it". You can't understand it untill you read it and not even then. It can be read and reread and is always funny and always new

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, compulsive satirical literature
Review: Joseph Heller's excellent anti-war satire is on of the most poignant, intriguing and comical books ever written. The conversations of his roundabout characters are some of the wittiest pieces of dialogue one could ever find in a novel, and the underlying satire and social commentary behind every character and every page really does pack a punch. Catch-22 is both hilarious, cynical and scathingly satirical: a masterpiece; a tremendous achievement.

It revolves around a group of characters during WWII, notably the eccentric Yossarian. Yossarian is confined to a small military on the island of Pianosa, in amongst a large group of weird and wonderful characters. Each of these characters exhibit strange idiosyncrasies inflicted by the madness of war: they are vehicles for Heller to convey the futility and stupidity of the institution.

Yossarian, no matter what he tries, cannot escape bombardier duty and cannot get transferred. To be transferred, one must be classified as insane. Hence the Catch-22: by exhibiting a concern for one's personal safety and asking for a transfer, one is sane. But, by flying combat missions and risking one's life, one is IN-sane, but by asking to leave, one is SANE! Yossarian is flummoxed.

Catch-22 is one of the best books ever written and I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: I'd like to express my gratitude to Mr. Heller
Review: for the pleasure I derived from reading this outstandingly profound work. I believe that if there exists one more book on the shamefulness and stupidity of war, it is well worth being, but I love this particular anti-war book because it's the first time I've seen the army dolboyebizm represented to the full of its disgraceful and absurd comicality. (The word is widely used in the russian army and society and stands for unpunished petty tyranny of people of higher rank, carried out to demonstrate the superiority of their position and (or) as a result of the inefficiency of their brainwork, which leads to unnecessary waste of time and energy of the subordinates, who are forced to execute orders often devoid of any common sense.) The book makes an enjoyable read to the attentive reader and leaves a deep impression because of the sanity and reasonableness of its message, which despite its simplicity proves unfortunately so hard to embrace.

Rating:
Summary: Hey, it's STILL good!
Review: With the recent death of Joseph Heller, I felt compelled to go back and reread his masterpiece, Catch 22. Thirty some years ago I read it as an undergraduate at San Francisco State in the midst of the Viet Nam War. Looking at it again in my fifties, Catch-22 seems a bit more over the edge, and yet the wit is still razor sharp. The absurdities of war still ring true. Heller reminds us that the insanity of war is not limited to pointless wars like Viet Nam. The craziness can even can be found in the so called Good War.

Rating:
Summary: The best anti-war book ever written.
Review: I first read this book quite by accident. I was 20 years old and faced a long bus ride back to the base. I was a young marine at the time and little did I know that this book was going to change my life. It was 1964 and a place called Vietnam was just starting to be spoken about, a place most of us didn't know the first thing about. I was lucky enough to be discharged in 1965, and missed the opportunity to kill Asian farmers. I finished "Catch-22" in just a few days. I've read it many, many, times since. From being a rather ordinary, "just go along with it", marine, I became an anti-war protester, in no small part due to this wonderfully subversive work of Joseph Heller. I've never read another book, (and, I've read very many), that so completely and so darkly (yet hilariously), points out the horrible absurdity of war. If you can read "Catch-22, and then read any other book that glorifies war, Yossarian will come back to haunt you and remind you that it's all a miserable "Catch-22".

Rating:
Summary: Take a look in the mirror
Review: This book is an excellent read. Not only does it make perfect sense, but the reader winds up cheering for the nonhero. The most interesting aspect of the novel is the striking resemblance to William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.

Rating:
Summary: "I think everyone's Nathaniel"
Review: Catch-22 is so great. The thing that makes it so unique is that it doesn't just center on the main character, but changes throughout the chapters. It is such an original style of writing that is very rare. The novel is written in the third person omniscient, which means that you know what everyone is thinking.

The way that the story unfolds is also very interesting. It jumps from past to present in a seemingly effortless way. I enjoy this book. It kept me thinking the whole time (which is hard to do).