Catch-22

by Joseph Heller

Review of Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

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       This book is the best book that I have ever read (and I have read all ten of the current top ten in this list!). I thought it was brilliant the first time I read it, and it just gets better every time I revisit it. A great novel could be made out of any one of the ideas and characters in this book- but crammed with ideas and humour as it is, I personally am stunned by its brilliance every time I open it at random and laugh out loud.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller was reviewed by Cliodhna

       do not this book I like.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller was reviewed by Jeff

       Quite a long book, this. Well, considering that practically every chapter is a repeat of every other chapter but with different wording. I soldiered on through it but when I came within the last 50 pages or so, I just couldn't bear it any longer and I gave up. I never went back to finish it. It's so boring and samey that it's like Chinese water torture. Awful.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller was reviewed by Elliot

       This novel has inspired many things -one reviewer has already mentioned the tv series MASH which was CATCH 22/Lite of course . Whilst putatively about the 2 nd World War it is (deliberately) full of anachronisms  and  is entirely non-chronological teaching  lessons about the military mind and buereaucracy which are bang up to date and relevant to  current conflict s.Understandably it was extremly popular with US troops in Vietnam.Yossarian one of the novels central characters as an anti-hero archetype has been served up to us in various forms  in just about every Hollywood blockbuster about Vietnam ever since.

       Heller  would have acknowledged his debt to Kafka and Orwell  in portraying an individual trapped within a nightmarish system with its own  illogical internal logic however to Kafka's suffocating nightmare Heller added his own highly original brand of humour and of course use of language .   Nothing is what it seems jokes are not to be taken lightly and you can gasp with horror and laugh outloud reading  not just the same page but the same sentence .

       Returning to this book after many years and with the benefit of more experience it becomes even more richly rewarding .It is amongst the best 10 twentieth century novels I have read and that is good enough for me. 

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller was reviewed by Major Major

       Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is a cross between M*A*S*H and Abbott and Costello's "who's on first".  Its a story of the Fighting 256th Squadron and the men in it.  I have to admit that the first time i tried to read it I just didn't get it.  I was in my early teens at the time and to me Heller just seemed to write in circles and never got anywhere.  When I recently revisited Catch-22 years later I was able to see the genious in the work.  While the book does seem to go in circles, each time around you get more information and the story progresses forward. 

       There are a lot of characters and at first it seemed like the book was moving too fast to keep everyone straight.  After reading Catch-22 I recommend that you just don't worry too much about keeping all the characters straight because chances are that before too long the book will loop back and revisit the same scene from a different angle.  This will allow you to catch up on who is who.

       The thing that surprised me about Catch 22 was that on several occasions I found myself laughing out loud to myself one minute, and the next minute cringing.  While the book is meant to show the absolutely absurd nature of bureaucratic reasoning, it also shows some of the horrors of combat and the life of a soldier.  All in all I'd say a pretty good book. 

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller was reviewed by Dave Patron

       Read the novel once in the underground and found myself laughing out loud by myself (people around me must have thought either I am out of my minds or the book must be really funny) finished the novel 2 weeks back.

       started reading the novel (again!) and found myself laughing out loud by myself (again!)

       they've even made a movie based on this novel (back in 1970's) trying to get my hands on that at the moment.

       all in all people, this book is brilliant. an absolute master piece...

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller was reviewed by Anonymous

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