Catch-22

Rating:
Summary: Touched by God
Review: The greatest book in human history, no ifs ands or buts. Heller was truly touched by the hand of God when he wrote this

Rating:
Summary: Upping the average score
Review: The funniest book I can ever hope to read

Rating:
Summary: I had to catch "Catch-22"
Review: It took me months to find a copy of Catch-22. Somehow, though, I knew that I had to find it. After the first sentence, I knew that I was going to love the book. There's something spectacular about a book that never seems to fit together. The time lapses in the book are just as crazy as most of the characters! I never knew when what happened, but the whole book had a simply CrAzY effect on me. I had to catch "Catch-22"

Rating:
Summary: What's the Catch?
Review: The phrase "Catch-22" is mostly used by supposedly literate people to convey the notion of circular reasoning. e.g., Yossarian couldn't get out of the war unless he was crazy, but - if he wanted out - he couldn't be crazy. That's one interpretation. As I see it, that wasn't really Heller's point. The real meaning of the phrase, as quoted from the book" was "Catch-22... Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing." Great book.

Rating:
Summary: Histerical
Review: This book is excellent. I read it over ten years ago, but it stands out in my mind as one of the funniest books I've read, along with Slaughterhouse Five. You will find yourself laughing out loud. One of those books that everyone should read

Rating:
Summary: There is always a catch. Heller explores the 22nd.
Review: Satire, farce and hyperbole have never taken the embodiment that is: Catch 22. An intense, hilarious and deeply macarbe account of modern society in world war two sees many highly symbolic characters - Yossarian, Milo, Dunbar - take to life, empounding a provocative indictment upon bureaucracy, business, authority -- the foundations of society!

This is a must read!
[-SwM-]

Rating:
Summary: definitely on of the very best books I ever read
Review: When I first read Catch 22, I was enthralled, the way it moves between hilarious episodes and then chokes the laughter is hardly to be superseded. Actually even Joseph Heller himself only came close with the sequel „Closing Time". Since my first copy I now own my third copy because the older ones were falling apart from being read so much by myself and all those friends of mine that I could persuade to check it out. As soon as I find the time I will read it for the fourth time and it is the only book that I read more than twice. And I don't think there is any praise higher than wanting to read a book again and again and being sure to find some great detail that you might have missed the last times. It is a definite „must have"!

Rating:
Summary: A must read for any one who's been a victim of a Catch-22
Review: Catch-22 takes life in WWII and makes it almost human. The charachers are wonderful as they go through life just trying to get to the next day. The humor is sad but memorable. Milo, Yossarian, Hungry Joe and the cat will be in my mind for the real of my life. I would recommend this book to anyone. Even if you don't like war stories (which I don't) it is still well worth the read

Rating:
Summary: To truly know war,don't dwell on horror; embrace absurdity.
Review: If you want to know the horror of war, read "All Quiet on the Western Front" or "The Red Badge of Courage" or "From Here to Eternity." Bravery in the service of death. Blood and carnage. The inexpressable sadness of young men dying to validate the decisions of old men who draw lines on maps.

But the thing we must remember is that wars have never solved anything -- we keep having them, and the lines just get redrawn -- and young men just keep dying.

And that is absurd.

"Catch 22" says that: If you want to get out of the next death-defying mission, you must prove that you are crazy, because a crazy person can't be allowed to go on such a mission. But if you try to prove you're crazy (and therefore don't want to go on the mission), you're sane and you have to go.

I've read "Catch 22" 10 times, and every time I read it, I find something new to laugh at. As long as I can laugh at war, I think I'm a little saner than the old men who draw lines on maps. I'll keep reading it until I find nothing new to laugh at.

After "Catch 22," Joseph Heller wrote other books that were less than acclaimed. "Something Happened" was greeted with "What Happened?" I don't care -- "Catch 22" guarantees his place in the history of the human race's struggle away from war.

I was in Vietnam, so I am almost an old man. I hope I never draw lines on maps. I want to always know what Heller was trying to tell us: War is not horrible. It is absurd.

Rating:
Summary: The book that shaped my life
Review: Sometimes I'm amazed that this novel, set on a WWII Italian airbase, could so change the life of a teenaged girl growing up in 1980s suburban Houston. How could I possibly have related so strongly to the book? _Catch-22_ is about the absurdity, the wrongness, the evil which is part of many familiar institutions. It is a primer in how to say "No" to meaningless demands, cruel commands, nonsensical orders. It is also funny. Certain passages still cause me to laugh out loud. The ending nearly stirs me to cheering. Like _Slaughterhouse Five_ and _Gravity's Rainbow_, _Catch-22_ is not *really* about WWII. Far from being a poke at those who fought the 'good war', it is a take on the society of the Cold War. Also like those other fine novels, it progresses in a circular fashion, replete with wordplay and strange imagery. I can't promise that it will change anyone's life, but it will certainly provide an entertaining and intelligent read