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Catch-22

Author: Joseph Heller
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

123 reviews
Sales Rank: 359

Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 576
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5 x 1.4

ISBN: 0099477319
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780099477310
ASIN: 0099477319

Publication Date: October 6, 1994
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 6-10 of 123

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A HELL OF A CATCH! December 5, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

The sharpest, funniest, most tragic and satirical novel to come out of the seond world war - after Heller war books could never be the same again - the greatest achievement of a great writer - that`s some catch that catch 22!

Mick Drake author of the comic novel All`s Well at Wellwithoute

5 out of 5 stars

It's not about war November 23, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

Catch-22 is about the seemingly unavoidable self-contradictions inherent in any person's opinions and beliefs. Heller has spotted this human trait and exaggerated it to great comical effect. The wartime setting is really just that - a dramatic setting with which to raise the stakes of our illogic and laugh at our shared delusion that we are rational beings.

5 out of 5 stars

Unparallelled tragic comedy. August 27, 2007
12 out of 15 found this review helpful

The first time I read this, it would have got a one-star rating. I found it boring, repetitive and entirely uninteresting. However, the memory of it itched at me - there was something about it that made me uncomfortable, so I picked it up again......

...and now, in my opinion, it is one of the all-time classic novels. The humour is black as a witch's cat, and the sheer nonsensical, bizarre characters and behaviour serve up what would be a hilarious novel, if it wasn't so tragic. The lunacy aside, there are some very poignant and upsetting set pieces throughout...which is probably the point. Heller shakes you around, makes you laugh, and then kicks you right where it hurts.

It also has maginficent resonance - on many occasions I'll find myself thinking abnout the dead man in Yossarian's tent, Huple's cat, or Snowdon's secret. It's an absolute roller-coaster of utter lunacy set against the backdrop of a man trying to keep his sanity in a world gone mad....

My advice - if you're finding it hard work, just keep going - read it again!

1 out of 5 stars

Only if you care about the lives of American soldiers June 29, 2007
7 out of 58 found this review helpful

Over rated and repetitious. Does not amount to more than the sum of its parts so read only the first 4 chapters and that's that. American soldiers (ooh I care), cowardly underlings, Italian prostitutes, bad Generals. It's all said at the beginning and nothing happens otherwise. Oh yes, one man deserts towards the end. The knowledge is meant to be revelatory but it's obvious as soon as he disappears. Life's too short for this sort of book.

2 out of 5 stars

More like slow-torture than good fiction June 24, 2007
6 out of 29 found this review helpful

I suppose the fact that I had enormous expectations of this book means that is was never going to live up to them, but I didn't think it would be this bad.

It is very, very confusingly written, jumping back and forth in time, re-telling stories from different points of views, introducing more and more characters as you go along. None of this of course is a bad thing, normally it is the sign of an intriguing book, however for me this book doesn't work. Maybe its too old for younger readers like myself now, maybe I just don't get the world war satire etc, however I don't think this is the case. There are undoubtedly some quite clever bits in it, for example I do like Milo Minderbinder's business interests and the way he profits out of the war justifying every move as good for the country. I again like how 're-occuring' jokes and themes do actually keep cropping up (i.e. the knife weilding prostitute trying to kill the lead character) rather than been forgotten as sometimes happens in books.

For once it's not that the book doesn't seem to be going anywhere or contain anything of interest, a frequent problem in literature, a lot of interesting events occur and it does all lead to a conclusion, it all makes sense at the end. However none of this detracts from the fact that I did not enjoy this book, it did not make me want to turn to the next page. The only reason I kept going was the fact that a book of this reputation seemed to deserve my efforts to finish it and find out what it had to say in the end. All this I got, whilst it is a ridiculous tale of survival in the 2nd world war, I kind of think for me there's nothing new in it, for me I've heard all this kind of satire before. I really thought there would be something more in the book.

Sadly in conclusion this book was slow-torture to read, and can't wait to move onto something else. I will concede though that a lot of people who have reviewed this book, enjoyed it after re-reading it a second time a few years after reading it initially, so if I read it again in a few years and change my views of it, I will of course replace this review.