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Loading... Catch-22 (1961)by Joseph Heller
  
» 107 more Favourite Books (33) Best Satire (2) BBC Big Read (51) Top Five Books of 2013 (211) Best War Stories (8) Folio Society (50) Five star books (34) War Literature (5) 1960s (9) A Novel Cure (47) Books Read in 2016 (1,371) Overdue Podcast (35) BBC Big Read (22) Read This Next (6) Best Young Adult (209) Read (28) Historical Fiction (360) 100 World Classics (31) Books Read in 2009 (64) The Greatest Books (41) Reiny (4) Modernism (57) First Novels (22) Page Turners (67) Bureaucracies (3) 2017 Goal (16) Política - Clásicos (161) Fiction For Men (88) Read (8) Couldn't Finish It (111) Biggest Disappointments (414) Favorite Long Books (283) Unread books (879) No current Talk conversations about this book. I had to force myself to finish this book. I've been told by others it was hilarious (in a dark way). I can see the humor but did not find myself laughing very much. If I had been taking notes as I read it I might have been able to remember who was who and what their particular quirks were. But I did not. So the storyline did not flow smoothly for me. I plan on watching the movie and there's a TV series (Hulu) now streaming. I hope it helps me put the characters in their proper place. This might be the kind of book you have to read at least twice to appreciate. Sorry. That's not going to happen. (  ) LJCain | May 24, 2019 |  I will have to reread this, since I remember this book as the origin of the phrase snafu, and found it depressingly realistic. Not so funny back then, but maybe now, 35 years later and having gotten out of the environment, perhaps I can enjoy this book. I should try. ( ) FourFreedoms | May 17, 2019 | I should have stuck to my first reading from High School, rather than reading it again. Now, it seems even more annoying, slightly pompous, a product of its racist times in terms of taking the mistreatment of Black folks and even white women for granted, and just too snarky for me to like. Sorry. (  ) FourFreedoms | May 17, 2019 | The classic American novel for me. If you wish to understand that perfectly American process of taking a very serious matter such as WWII, and then giving it an artificial structure, the American army's Air force, then recruiting a number of fairly normal people to run it, and to be in it, then setting a minor role for those people, in this case, bombing Bologna, a fairly obscure target in the minor Italian theatre, and then cluttering this dangerous role with an arbitrary set of standards for success, and pursuing those standards to the extent of hampering that mission, this is the perfect novel. Heller's book has multiple levels of symbolism, and one finds that even the huge undertaking of WWII is but a symbol for American life overall, then Heller's novel has worked its wonders in your world view for the rest of your life. He did it to me, and I am not ashamed. The only flaw is that there are no well developed female characters in this book.... (  ) DinadansFriend | May 14, 2019 | Listened to the Books on Tape audiobook version of this. The reader sounds like a 50s radio announcer, which totally adds to the experience. The Marx Brothers style dialogue really lends itself to audio as well. The work itself is a masterpiece of poignant satire and absurdity. Can be read and re-read -- there are many subtleties to pick up in each re-reading. Highly, highly recommended. ( ) xiaomarlo | Apr 17, 2019 |
A stand out novel for many years to come South Africa Girls Whatsapp Numbers Pretoria Girls Whatsapp Numbers  "A wild, moving, shocking, hilarious, raging, exhilarating, giant roller-coaster of a book" "the best novel to come out in years"  "doesn't even seem to be written; instead, it gives the impression of having been shouted onto paper.... what remains is a debris of sour jokes"  "Catch-22," by Joseph Heller, is not an entirely successful novel. It is not even a good novel by conventional standards. But there can be no doubt that it is the strangest novel yet written about the United States Air Force in World War II. Wildly original, brilliantly comic, brutally gruesome, it is a dazzling performance that will probably outrage nearly as many readers as it delights. In any case, it is one of the most startling first novels of the year and it may make its author famous. Has the adaptationHas as a student's study guideCliffsNotes on Heller's Catch-22 by C. A. Peek Has as a teacher's guide
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Yossarian says, "You're talking about winning the war, and I am talking about winning the war and keeping alive."
"Exactly," Clevinger snapped smugly. "And which do you think is more important?"
"To whom?" Yossarian shot back. "It doesn't make a damn bit of difference who wins the war to someone who's dead."
"I can't think of another attitude that could be depended upon to give greater comfort to the enemy."
"The enemy," retorted Yossarian with weighted precision, "is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on."
Mirabile dictu, the book holds up post-Reagan, post-Gulf War. It's a good thing, too. As long as there's a military, that engine of lethal authority, Catch-22 will shine as a handbook for smart-alecky pacifists. It's an utterly serious and sad, but damn funny book.
(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:15:09 -0400)
The story of a World War II bombardier who is frantic and furious because people he doesn't know keep trying to kill him.
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