Catch-22 - Books (Joseph Heller, Paperback)

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Customer Reviews of Catch-22

Lateau
UK
3rd January 2009

A gem
I picked this book up at University as it came highly rated and recommended. But I did not actually read it through until a few years later. When I first tried to read it I felt like it was work and I was forcing myself through it. When I came back to it I found it easier to work through the different threads that the book takes you on.

I think there are few books that have elicited many different and sometimes contradictory emotions from myself, and this is definitely one of them. When I have read it again I have been drawn in more by the story telling skill of Joseph Heller, as well as the simple morals that Yossarian follows. The humour becomes stronger and there have been some genuine laugh out loud moments as well as sympathy for the mini battles that are being fought in amongst the bigger theatre of war.

The ending is probably one of my favourite endings to a book and a fitting way to leave the story. If you have not read this book, then I suggest that you do. This is one of the greats.

Elen Caldecott
UK
1st January 2009

A desert island book
This is my all-time most re-read book. Written in a disjointed, rambling style, it just gets better with each reading - more pieces of the puzzle fall into place. And, until you crack the plot, the dry humour maintain your interest.
You can't open this book thinking it's an easy read - it isn't. But perseverance will be rewarded.

bibliobiblio
Glasgow, United Kingdom
10th November 2008

Disappointing to put it mildly
I waited a long time to buy and read this book. For one reason or another it always slipped my mind when I was shopping for books. Then one day I remembered and wish I hadn't.

Maybe I read it in the wrong era. Is this sixties humour, American humour, or student humour or all three? I found nothing to laugh about at all. I found each page filled with nonsense. I really isn't my idea of humour.

It really has struck a chord with many people, as these reviews testify.

For anyone wishing to buy it, read several pages and see if it suits your taste. Don't make the mistake I did, and assume because it's a so called classic it will be good.

Ethan Cooper
Big Apple
22nd October 2008

Great Characters Living with Death
The amazing CATCH-22 essentially has three overlapping narratives. One shows senior officers who are comically unsympathetic to the interests of their men. Some of these, such as Colonel Cathcart and General Peckem, are careerists who make decisions according to self-interest (or stupidity and self-interest). Others are incompetents, such as Major Major Major Major and General Sheiskopff, whose authority far surpasses their ability. To me, the careerist officers, while satirical, seemed as real as any modern bungling boss, working smugly in the corner office.

Milo Minderbinder, a genius trader and capitalist, is the dominant character in the second narrative. Technically, Milo is the mess officer at Pianosa, where Yossarian is based. But he has parlayed this job into a food supply syndicate and has become a major commercial player throughout the entire war zone. Milo is a profiteer and entrepreneur whose greed distorts, and sometimes overshadows, the war.

With Milo, Heller shows a world of surrealistic capitalism that thrives as the men in the bombers die. But for me, Milo didn't add much. His adventures make twisted sense. Yet they hit only one note and don't really ripen into something more profound. Milo is the least successful part of this superior and complex book.

The third narrative in CATCH-22 shows the men who fly in the bombers. Here, Heller's work is outstanding. There are men who can't shake the presence of death (Yossarian, Dunbar, Hungry Joe, and Dobbs). There are true believers who accept the mission and its risks (Clevinger and Havermeyer). There is a rich kid (Nately), a reckless hotdog (McWatt), and a doomed alcoholic (Chief White Halfoat). And there are the horrible fatalities (Snowden and Kid Sampson), whose deaths are gruesome and arbitrary.

Heller's work with these characters is absolutely first-rate. While they have cartoonish aspects, each is distinct and each has a surprisingly moving story. Heller also writes about their combat missions with you-are-there intensity. Finally, he connects the reader emotionally to the plight of these characters, especially in the final 150 pages, when the power and poignance of his narratives merge and really hit home. Then, you feel the consequences when you learn that, say, Milo has substituted aspirin for morphine in McWatt's plane on the tragic and high-risk mission to Avignon. "There there," murmurs Yossarian. "There there."

CATCH-22 is a long book. There is repetitiveness in its humor. Its iteration of events is occasionally maddening. But keep at it! CATCH 22 deserves its must-read reputation (although seventh place on the ML Best Novels list seems a bit high). Regardless, this is a terrific novel.

Karen
England
18th October 2008

I Love This Book
This book has got me through some of my worst days and made the good ones even better. I don't think it's possible to put into words just how special this book is.