Catch-22 (1961)

I really didn't like this book at the beginning and you need to brace yourself for a timeline that twists and turns. In the end, I really enjoyed this book and how it exposes the craziness of power, greed, humanity, and hierarchy. ( )

This book is a treasure trove of flagrant incompetence. The 1961 book: Catch 22 could be said to be an extended illustration of [b:The Peter Principle|890728|The Peter Principle|Laurence J. Peter|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347586680l/890728._SY75_.jpg|875969], which was published in 1969. It seems like everyone in the unit is incompetent. They each have misguided goals that seldom align with the organization goals. The book describes interactions between them, not the German enemy.

The first few chapters are people talking nonsense past each other, frequently there long conversations that are deliberate misunderstandings of simple communication. It seems as if everyone hates and fears everyone else in their unit.

After reading it for a while, I found myself falling into the same miscommunication patterns that they were using. That almost caused me to stop reading, but it is so highly rated by other people that I kept on in hopes that it would get better. It only got marginally better.

I struggled to give it a rating of 3 stars, but after reading more decided to give it 2 stars, which feels more appropriate for a book where nonsense, misunderstanding, belittlement, mayhem, and rage are the standard fare. Lies, including blatant lies are the order of the day. Consequences are rare, random, and often applied to the innocent with truth being totally irrelevant. Meanness to each other and misdeeds are followed by more misdeeds. This book only serves as an example of doing things wrong.

With military like this, it’s amazing that we won the war. But then, this purports to be a work of fiction. Doesn’t it? A review of [b:The True Story of Catch 22: The Reality that Inspired one of the Great Classics in American Literature|45486006|The True Story of Catch 22 The Reality that Inspired one of the Great Classics in American Literature|Patricia Chapman Meder|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1557174422l/45486006._SY75_.jpg|70264505] caused me to read Catch-22.

The front material and the after material caught my interest more than the book.

I am delighted that I did not purchase a copy of this book. ( )

Well at least I am finally done with my TBR 2015 list. Yeah. But I had to finish this long and not very interesting book to complete that list, um yeah?!

I always feel weirded out when I don't like something that is pushed on readers as classics. Heck, I didn't like The Catcher in the Rye or The Fault in Our Stars. So I should realize now, that not all books called classics are going to resonate with me.

I don't even know how to explain this book. There was too much going on. Catch-22 takes place during the latter part of World War II. We follow a character called Yossarian who flies in an air squadron. Yossarian and several other characters are faking injuries for the most part in order to not be forced from their hospital beds. Yossarian you realize after a while has to be suffering from PTSD. You start to get there later on in the book when you have him recalling events that occurred before he ended up in the hospital bed. Yossarian is still a hard character to like though. He is at times absurd, mean spirted, nice, and then back to being mean and ugly again.

Catch-22 comes up again and again when you have Yossarian realizing that if he pretends to be insane (meaning he no longer has to participate in the war) then he is really setting himself up by not looking insane, since if someone was truly insane they would not know it.

There are so many other plots/characters going on in Catch-22 it was very hard to focus as I was reading. There felt like there was too "much" happening and it really made it difficult to wade through the book. I realize that Heller was trying to say something about the price of war. But it was hard to focus on that message when there were so many moving parts, and a main character that I really didn't like.

One of the other characters who becomes linked to Yossarian and has it out for him in the novel (which honestly I still don't get why) was seriously called Nately's whore. Yeah. So there were a lot of unappealing characters in this book.

The writing was good, I just think that I had a hard time caring about anything that was going on. This was up there with getting my teeth cleaned for me. I know I have to have it done every couple of months, it doesn't mean I am happy about being at the dentist though. It's just something to suffer through. The flow wasn't great due to the book jumping around every chapter or so and deciding to focus on someone or something else.

The end when it came, I was happy to get to since it meant, no more book. ( )

I read this shortly after coming home from a tour of duty in Vietnam and Japan. Super book! ( )