Catch-22

453 pages

English language

Published Jan. 21, 2004

ISBN:
978-0-684-83339-2
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Goodreads:
168668

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3 stars (4 reviews)

Catch-22 is like no other novel. It has its own rationale, its own extraordinary character. It moves back and forth from hilarity to horror. It is outrageously funny and strangely affecting. It is totally original. Set in the closing months of World War II in an American bomber squadron off Italy, Catch-22 is the story of a bombardier named Yossarian, who is frantic and furious because thousands of people he hasn't even met keep trying to kill him. Catch-22 is a microcosm of the twentieth-century world as it might look to someone dangerously sane. It is a novel that lives and moves and grows with astonishing power and vitality -- a masterpiece of our time. - Back cover.

14 editions

reviewed Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (Everyman's library ;)

Disappointing

2 stars

I decided it was finally time to read Catch-22 so I could get the cultural references that come up from time to time. I couldn't finish it.

In each chapter, we meet some odd characters with odd names that are probably supposed to make the reader laugh. We encounter some kind of circular logic. We have an absurd situation. And nothing really changes, and then we move onto the next chapter with new odd-named characters, new circular logic, new absurdities. 8 chapters into the book I skimmed through the chapter titles, which are nearly all odd character names, and realized it was likely going to be the same pattern again and again. The problem is that I wasn't entertained, and so in the middle of my 8th mission I decided that it just wasn't worth it and deserted. I won't make it to 42 missions.

Repetition to drive home a …

avatar for Alex

rated it

4 stars
avatar for emme

rated it

3 stars