"Well, do you know what you are? You're a frustrated, unhappy, disillusioned, undisciplined, maladjusted young man!"

I just finished reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, and before I start reading The Master and Margarita, I want to write a brief piece about what I think of Catch-22, a book often described as a 'cult classic' by critics.

At the beginning, the book didn't click with me. First, it's a war book, and I'm not a big fan (of wars, or wartime books). Second, too many characters were thrown at me and I found that connecting to them was difficult. Third, I felt it was 'too American', which I later came to appreciate as the book was released post World War 2 predominately to an American audience, and served as a response to wartime books that glorified war as a noble concept.

So why was I determined to finish it? Yossarian, of course. The protagonist of Catch-22 is a young man by the strange name of Yossarian who is constantly attempting to escape the increasing number of flying missions by diving in and out of insanity. What is so appealing about Yossarian, is that he is constantly referred to as deranged, crazy, and disillusioned. Yet, as a reader (and a disillusioned person, perhaps), found that the simple excuses he gave to escape war were quite valid. For example, when asked why he doesn't want to fly any more missions, Yossarian replies, 'because they want to kill me!'. Isn't that a valid reason to not go to war? I thought it was.

Being someone who works in a sector that is completely immersed in bureaucracy, where what matters most is ego and reputation, I found the bitter themes of the book frustrating. Yossarian's commanders demand from his group to maintain a 'tight bombing pattern' only because a picture of the bombing would look good in the papers (as opposed to destroy a target effectively). Also throughout the book, Yossarian's Colonel keeps raising the number of flying missions of his group, putting their lives on the line, only to please his superiors.

To appreciate the themes of the book (and despise them), I had to draw a link to my experiences (a weak link in this case, but relevant nontheless). Just think about the number of times you had to deliver a project bigger (not necessarily better) than the previous one, only because the previous project was run by someone that your boss was competing with? How many times were you told to omit data from a report only because it 'looked better' on one page and not two. Ah! The frustration!

At the end of the day, most of us read books to escape our mundane reality, not to affirm it. I enjoy reading books that oppose and challenge my views and offer me an opportunity to change my ideas. With Catch-22, I found myself sighing in anger and frustration at the bitterly comical reality that it presented, and wished that I had opted for another classic that didn't raise my blood pressure with every page.

Overall, does it deserve the 'classic' status it has? I think so, mainly because it was the first of its kind at the time, and challenged views that glorified war. Also, Yossarian is a timeless character that most of us would relate to in any situation when we've just had enough.

The question that it sitting at the back of my head at the moment is, would this book be so great if it were released today? ( )

I especially love Major Major Major and the egg sales. ( )

This is one of those books that I keep coming back to, and I love this Folio Society edition. (I still giggle every time I think of the scenes with Major Major.) ( )

Joseph Heller was an American bombardier in WWII and the novel's main character, John Yossarian, finds himself in the same situation. Catch-22 is masterful satire. Yossarian wants to stop flying missions, but the fact that he questions the wisdom of flying more missions assures his commanders that he is sane enough to continue flying.

The author's style can make the story hard to follow--the different points of view and events described out of sequence can be confusing. Hang in there--you'll be glad you did.

Catch-22 is a hilarious, tragic, and insightful anti-war novel. ( )

It is difficult, sometimes, to see such a large exaggeration as a squadron of World War II soldiers who no longer have any idea what they are fighting for as a reflection of the psychological effects such hostilities. Certainly, we think, this cannot have any correlation to real-life combat. And yet, when looked at from a different perspective, Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 is just that—by showing a mindset that is that over- the-top, the reader quickly discovers Heller’s intent in writing this novel, and throughout the rest of the book develops that idea even more. Catch 22 is about such a squadron, who have become so apathetic to the fighting that they no longer understand what their goal is, and whose leaders have ceased the information they divulge to their men. Furthermore, there is no way out for these soldiers—they are trapped by an illogical complicated concept called a “Catch 22” which has become absolute law because the men do not question it.

And therein lies the problem. This book illustrates the worst kind of dystopia—the only source of utopia is complete ignorance, both from what is happening on the surface and what is happening behind the scenes. To be happy in the world of Catch 22, the soldiers must not only refuse to face the war that they are involved in, but the unwillingness of their superiors to show them the reason behind it, and the lack of answers they receive for the questions they do have. Eventually, the men stop questioning altogether because they know it is futile, and they simply serve without seeing the purpose. The only way to achieve perfection in a war is if you ignore it altogether.

This is a crazy book to read at times. It is not in chronological order and the only way to tell one time from another is by events, especially the rapid increase of the number of required missions each man in the squadron must fly in order to be discharged. The writing is blunt and often absurd. But it is hilarious and traumatic all at the same time, and although it is not hard to recognize the satire, it only makes the book that much better because one can pick out the ideas Heller wishes to convey from early in the plot. I would definitely recommend this novel to anyone who wishes for a good laugh and a good lesson. ( )

The attempt at humor in Catch-22 was a rather poor attempt.

The dialog was always a playful back-and-forth banter which at first was uninteresting, then grew tiresome, then I grew to downright dislike it.

I admit that this is one book I could not bring myself to finish. Not worth my time. ( )

One of my favorite books of all time. ( )

Catch-22 is a satirical novel on WWII by Joseph Heller that was published in 1961. Even though I’ve always been interested in reading the novel, as it is often considered to be one of the greatest novels of the 20th century and I am fond of reading satires, I’ve also been intimidated by it’s complexity. It is complex in a sense that the story is told in a nonlinear style and contains multiple points of view. The events of the story unfold in a sort of unusual out of sequence way.

Then a few months ago I became really sick. I had a high fever. I felt exhausted and my mouth felt like sand paper. That is when I started to read Catch-22. For some reason being sick made me appreciate the story. The lack of physical wellbeing (not being able to get up, not being able to eat) left me with a sort of an understanding of Yossarian's world. Watching helplessly and going slowly insane (or becoming more and more sane) as Colonel Cathcart keeps raising the number of missions while his friends die one after another, Yossarian's world falls apart all around him. The hopelessness of the rule of catch-22, the self -contradictory logic that keeps going round and round, a rule that no one can break and the impossibility of ever escaping it, made my mind boggle. The humour in it is so dark that after a while I forgot to laugh anymore. Joseph Heller creates a world that is stark and real and at the same time incredible and unreal. It's a paradoxical world. Reading it was an unsettling experience and I don't know if I'll ever read it again but Catch-22 definitely left a distinct impression on my mind.

Very witty and interesting anti-war novel. ( )

A book as monumental as the task of reading it was. ( )

This is neck-and-neck with Pride and Prejudice as #1--first read it in high school, and time stood still--contains my favorite book line ever (Chief White Halfoat): "Racial prejudice is a terrible thing, Yossarian. It really is. It's a terrible thing to treat a decent, loyal Indian like a n, kike, wop or spic." I still remember sitting there in my drill team uniform, howling with laughter... ( )

"If you want to fly in this war, you must be crazy. If you're crazy, then we won't let you fly - but if you don't want to fly, then that is rational fear of death, so you can't be crazy which means you have to fly."

Catch-22 follows a group of young men conscripted into service and flying bombing missions in Italy as part of a fictional squadron in the United States Army Air Force. It centres around Yossarian, a bombardier (bomb-aimer) who is reluctant to continue flying as friends and other squadron members are swatted down by anti-aircraft fire, or other mishaps, but has to keep flying as long he is demonstrating this reluctance (since this is a sane reaction to the evident danger of flying missions).

The book seems to draw on real tales and experiences from the war - although they are obviously fictionalised and further enhanced by Heller's satire.

There are some incredible sequences in the book - including Milo Minderbender's amazing ability to get eggs in Malta at 7 cents a piece, and then sell them on for a profit at 5 cents a piece. And then there is the hunt for Washington Irving, a false identity used by a number of officers in the squadron, much to the vexation of military intelligence, and Major Major's biography and rise to squadron commander, and more and more.

The storyline is a little scattergun in places - talking about events and jumping about the timeline in order to provide more details a little later on in the book, but it is extremely easygoing to read, and even the crazy skews of logic that some of the characters take are fun to follow and reach the conclusion.

One thing I find remarkable is that the book was written before the Vietnam War had even started, and even more years before the mass disaffection with conscription that started the protests and demonstrations of the late 60s and early 70s (although the film adaptation did hit the screens in 1970 alongside M*A*S*H). But, then, the book isn't really anti-war as much as it is a commentary on exactly how crazy can be. ( )

I never wanted anything to do with this book when it was required reading back in school, but once I picked it up long after, could not put it down. ( )

The beginning and ending of this book were amazing and wonderful to read. However, the middle of the book is a little dry and can become quite difficult to read through. It is funny, ironic, illogical and crazy which makes it a good book to read if you are silly or too serious for your own good. Don't get all caught up on the weird and funny, it does have a very serious message behind it and gets more serious as the book develops. I loved the symbolism and literary style of the author. ( )

While I read this book a long time ago; this book is classic and biting satire at its best; and is much more about madness, than it would be specifically about the 'madness of war'. For that you need to dig out a copy of All Quiet on the Western Front. It is clear that a lot of things motivated Heller in writing this book, but it most definitely was not a war book written for yucks, the points (to me) are subtle and biting.

I love the part where the Germans contracted with the Army Air Corps to bomb their own bases, as it was all in the interest of business.... but what is really classic (and mind you, you may need some time in a bureaucratic setting to appreciate it ... is the going on and on about attention to bomb patterns ( who cares if you actually hit it ...) -all about arbitrary statistics and stuff like that.

You know the ironic part is that -nothing has really changed. ( )

Yossarian was in a dilemma …how to live without betraying his friends. He certainly flew his share of missions, but quitting meant a court marshal. And then there were his “pals.” If he made a deal with Col. Cathcart, it would be sort of like ‘shaking hands with the devil.’ Unless he was crazy he was obligated to fly, but he’d have to be crazy if he flew again. Catch 22, no way out, “up a creek without a paddle …”

Throughout the novel Yossarian saw death take his comrades with the cruelty and madness of war. When he learns about Orr’s escape, he jumps at a chance to run himself. As the final scene comes to a surprise ending, I’d like to think he made it safely. ( )

A crazy, wonderful yet cruelly sane story, also hilariously funny. a disturbing insight into the larger struggle of today: the survival of mankind. ( )

This is a hard book for me to review, if only because it leaves me with a lot of mixed feelings. The anti-war themed satire is still incredibly relevant. There are many things that made me laugh, Milo's entire enterprise for instance. And I also felt and cared deeply for Yossarian. The jumbled, overly large cast somehow managed to feel far more close-knit and its an impressive display of writing. And it pulls no punches when it comes to making 'offensive' comments. All are things I find myself deeply appreciative of this novel for. At the same time, the narrative's tendency to just move from one scene and subject to the next without any notice can be quite jarring and make the read itself difficult and in some ways alien. Overall, I'm glad to have read it. I'd recommend it to others who have an appreciation for other books in the genre, but I don't know if it's a novel I'll ever reread. ( )

This is a satirical anti-war novel centring on the experiences of the bombardier Yossarian and the many weird characters that surround him.This is a ludicrous, somtimes funny and sometimes tragic book, and depicts many bizzare situations from various viewpoints. For example, there is a period of time when everyone is asked to sign loyalty oaths in triplicate, but the person whose loyalty is apparently suspect is not allowed to sign the oaths.Although this is a war novel, even death isn't sacred. For example, the pilot Mudd ("his name is Mudd") died on his first mission and hadn't even had the chance to be properly registered so becomes a bureaucratic nightmare as he never officially arrived (apart from his physical possessions still sitting in Yossarian's tent). Every time Yossarian is approaching the maximum number of missions, the number is increased.This is therefore quite a unique book, and is one of those books that you don't forget in a hurry. It was, however, very difficult to get into, due to the many various characters being introduced and the confusing sequence of time periods in the early stages of the novel. Partly because it is a war novel, the book is very masculine in the early chapters, and female characters don't appear until much later, so again this made it more difficult for me to relate to the story. But, as I was reading it for two challenges, and the book had a continuing ironic and wry sense of humour managed (just) to carry it through for me. The book also had a whole series of funny, if slightly pathetic, characters which carried the story.As a whole, there were some really laugh-out-loud bits, but there were also some more difficult bits, which is why I would give this book a fairly average three out of five. When it was good, it was very good, but it was not consistently very good. ( )

My favorite book of all time. For anyone that has missed this classic, run, don't walk, to the nearest bookstore and pick it up. This Heller classic portrays the horror and absurdity of war, politics and love. ( )

What's the catch? Catch-22.

If you've ever heard something described as being a "catch-22," congratulations, you've been alive some time between now and 1961!

For those of you reading this in the future, however (hi future!), after the overlords make dictionaries illegal, a "catch-22" is essentially a no-win situation. In your future life, you might refer to this as "every day."

Captain John Yossarian, a bombadier stationed in Italy during World War II, has desires that most of us have, such as not wanting to die. His desire to not want to die drives him to get sent home. He tries to fly as many missions as are required by him, but the powers that be continue to increase this number, seemingly in analog to his almost attaining enough missions to get sent home. So, he tries another tactic: he tries to get sent home because he's crazy.

You're crazy if you want to fly more missions, and if you're crazy, you should be grounded, and quite possibly sent home, but if you ask to be grounded, because you're crazy, well, then, you're trying to save your life, and quite possibly the lives of others, because, let's be honest, who wants to fly in a plane with a crazy guy, especially while dropping bombs all over the Italian front? The problem with that, is since you're doing something rational by asking to be grounded, well, then you're sane. And that circular logic is, effectively, Catch-22.

The book itself is an amazing work of fiction that is otherwise spoiled by vivisectionist English teachers everywhere. But if you read this, provided you get to that last page, you'll have a better appreciation for how the government really runs things (I believe that this book, or maybe a technical rewriting of it is the core rulebook for all government agencies).

It's particularly more enjoyable if you do in fact work for the government. ( )

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller (1996) ( )

I've mixed thoughts about Catch - 22. I appreciated the intelligent way it was written to convey the madness of war. I smiled at the dark humour and thought deeply about what it said but on occasions I found myself wishing for the end of the book to speed towards me, the frenetic nature of it just wore me out. I finished, but felt as if I'd been in a fight. Then again perhaps that was intended. ( )

"It must be nice to be in Sweden now, the girls are so sweet. And the people are so advanced." ( )

All I knew about this novel going into it was that it popularized the term “Catch-22” and that it was a satire set during WWII. Since I’m not very fond of books about army life and wars, I went into this one with the expectation that I would probably dislike it, only to find that it was much more entertaining than I could have imagined. At the center we have the bombardier John Yossarian, who desperately wants to stay alive and is trying by all means available to him to avoid flying more dangerous missions, though he is forever thwarted by Colonel Cathcart who increases the number of missions required of the men every time they reach his ever-increasing targets to ensure none of them can return home in hopes to earn greater esteem from his superiors. Heller’s wry humour and hilarious observations about human behaviour turns even some of the most violent and harrowing situations into opportunities for a laugh, although for some, altogether different responses—anger, sadness, frustration—might be considered more appropriate. The crudeness and zaniness of the characters and situations, the unflinching descriptions of injuries, death and aggression are sometimes difficult to read through, but they also contribute a feeling of immediacy which make this novel still relevant today, almost 50 years after the original publication. ( )