Catch-22

[benedictusk]

Catch-22 is great! One of my favorite books. It's ridiculously absurd, yet vitriolically real. Every character is insane, but when you look at any character's actions given a situation and the character's background, it's clear every character is perfectly sane (and yet perfectly insane at the same time).
It's attractive to think that the war made everyone insane - after all, everyone at the squadron is insane. However, a neater idea is everyone is already insane; the war just brings them together, taking them from the US, where everyone can be insane as long as they conform to social norms, and putting them in the war zone, where social norms don't mean a damn and the best thing for everyone to do is be as insane (or sane, from their perspective) as possible.

Here's my review which I posted in another topic after forgetting to see if a topic already existed for Catch-22:

Catch-22 is the recounting of the experiences of the tough, keenly observant, confused, paranoid, (in?)sane bombardier Yossarian and his comrades and officers during world war 2, each with their own intricately and meticulously constructed insane personalities.
Catch-22 (what I call the Insanity Loop) is described in the book:
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and he could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.

Joseph Heller is a brilliant writer whose descriptions are shocking and visceral, whose stories leave the mind suspended in clouds above water or lost in dense forest, and whose characters are just about the greatest, funniest, best developed characters imaginable.

Almost done with the book now and I've loved every page.

Here is one of my favorite passages:
There were too many dangers for Yossarian to keep track of. There was Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo, for example, and they were all out to kill him. There was Lieutenant Scheisskopf with his fanaticism for parades and there was the bloated colonel with his big fat mustache and his fanaticism for retribution, and they wanted to kill him, too. There was Appleby, Havermeyer, Black and Korn. There was Nurse Cramer and Nurse Duckett, who he was almost certain wanted him dead, and there was the Texan and the C.I.D. man, about whom he had no doubt. There were bartenders, bricklayers and bus conductors all over the world who wanted him dead, landlords and tenants, traitors and patriots, lynchers, leeches and lackeys, and they were all out to bump him off. That was the secret Snowden had spilled to him on the mission to Avignon - they were out to get him; and Snowden had spilled it all over the back of the plane.
There were lymph glands that might do him in. There were kidneys, nerve sheaths and corpuscles. There were tumors of the brain. There was Hodgkin's disease, leukemia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. There were fertile red meadows of epithelial tissue to catch and coddle a cancer cell. There were diseases of the skin, diseases of the bone, diseases of the lung, diseases of the stomach, diseases of the heart, blood and arteries. There were diseases of the head, diseases of the neck, diseases of the chest, diseases of the intestines, diseases of the crotch. There even were diseases of the feet. There were billions of conscientious body cells oxidating away day and night like dumb animals at their complicated job of keeping him alive and healthy, and every one was a potential traitor and foe. There were so many diseases that it took a truly diseased mind to even think about them as often as he and Hungry Joe did.

[darkandstormyknight]

I just started reading this book the other day, but it's hilarious! It's quickly becoming one of my favorites. I've always really liked absurdist stuff, so I really appreciate all of the quirky dialogue.
And I liked that excerpt too, benedictusk!
One of my favorites was: "Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three. Even among men lacking all distinction he inevitably stood out as a man lacking more distinction than all the rest, and people who met him were always impressed by how unimpressive he was."

[DATo]

When Hungry Joe wakes up to find Huple's cat sleeping on his face .... I laughed so long and so hard that I was almost literally on the floor.

Like Harper Lee, Joseph Heller had one great book in him. Harper Lee knew she only had one. Unfortunately, Joe Heller didn't.

[Chris Dutton]

Tried to read this about 4 or 5 times, and failed each time, generally through boredom as the tone never changes. It is VERY rare for me not to finish a book, by the way - maybe half a dozen in my life (I'm 43 and go through at least a book per week).

It's a bit like Monty Python....it's brilliant for a bit, but then the silliness starts to wear a bit thin...

[DATo]

Tried to read this about 4 or 5 times, and failed each time, generally through boredom as the tone never changes. It is VERY rare for me not to finish a book, by the way - maybe half a dozen in my life (I'm 43 and go through at least a book per week).

It's a bit like Monty Python....it's brilliant for a bit, but then the silliness starts to wear a bit thin...

Chris,

I have heard others voice your sentiments about this book and I'd like to offer a few insights that might help to explain why so many people love it.

First of all it is the tone itself which actually helps to make this a great book. The tone is consistent throughout the book which is an achievement it itself when one considers the length of this book. Few authors can sustain the same tone and mindset with such a long story and maintain it with such perfect consistency. Another thing that might help is for you to understand that the main thrust of the book deals with the absurdity of life, in this case, as represented by the war. The book touches many readers who, in their own lives, can see how ridiculously the machinations of the world around them sometimes spin out to absurd conclusions.

Another thing that might help is to know that each character in this book represents a particular type of human trait, i.e. the Chaplain represents a timid and ineffectual, but conscientious type of person; Clevinger represents the idealist; Hungry Joe represents the paranoid-to-the-extent-of-insane neurotic; Milo Minderbinder represents the absolute capitalist; McWatt ("Oh well, what the hell.") represents the fatalist; ect. ect ect.

Heller constructs this story like a spiderweb of what appear to be a plethora of non-related events which are cleverly interlaced and which ultimately find confluence in the reader's awareness of the totally ridiculous and absurd reality of life.

In my opinion the climax occurs when Dunbar sees the return of The Soldier In White and loses his mind. This is the most dramatic example of a character actually perceiving beyond the veil and becoming AWARE of this absurdity.

Another point involves the old man in the bordello who lectures Nately (who is a conservative born into a rich family and who is intensely patriotic) on the transitory complexion of history. This scene is a comic representation of the scene in Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov entitled The Grand Inquisitor.

I hope this post will encourage you to revisit this book. When I was first introduced to Quentin Tarantino's movies by viewing Pulp Fiction I thought it was stupid. I then watched it a second time and "got it". I hope you have a similar experience with Catch-22 because it really is an enormously good book once you "get" what Heller is doing.

[BookieCookie]

Maybe I just didn't "get" this book either, because I seem to have a similar opinion of it as Chris...I did persevere and read the whole book, but I found the humour became old fast and was bored by the end of it. I might have a re-read at some point though. Slaughterhouse 5 gets compared to this book quite a lot, I know lots of people who found them similar, but strangely I like Slaughterhouse and dislike 22.

[patrickt]

Catch-22 isn't just about the army. It's about life. Life is full of catch-22s. There are a thousand books of laws across the U.S. and we're presumed to know them all. Now that's funnier than anything Joseph Heller wrote.

I think Catch-22 is a great book.

What was Harper Lee's one great book?

[jessica3llen]

Great book! Its absurdity, makes it so funny, and easy to digest what you are actually reading about.

I do think that even though Closing Time is nowhere near as good as Catch-22, I still enjoyed reading it. It was a bit harder to trudge through though. Not as funny as Catch-22. But I felt the way it was written really fit the story. So I guess even though it wasn't as good or enjoyable, it still made a point. To me at least.

But definitely, definitely read Catch-22, it should be required reading!

[TRCDFamily]

I just finished this book and I don't get the hype either. It was okay. I don't think I could recommend this one.

[madelinemaher]

I finished Catch-22 a few weeks ago and I did not expect to like it as much as I did. I had high expectations for this book, as it is on EVERY "classic book you have to read before you die" list, but through the first hundred pages, I was not impressed. The further I got, however, the more I desired to hear what would come next, even though rarely anything "new" happens in this book, as the circular argument of "Catch-22" is also the base of the entire novel.

I believe it was helpful that I listened to the audiobook version instead of reading it, especially because of the repetitive nature of the book, I fear I would get lost in the narrative. During most of the book I was waiting to the climax--that crucial moment when I would figure out exactly what the plot was, but it never really came. This is again due to the beyond frustrating "Catch-22" argument which is the crux of the book. Despite the lack of pivotal moment of the book, the narrative is hilarious and absurd (in a good way).

I think more than any other work of fiction, I found myself continually seeing ways to relate it to everyday life--my friends probably got sick of me saying "oh, that's a Catch-22!"

The story ended a little more abrupt than I expected and I again felt a little disappointed, as if I was cut off before I was supposed to be. But then I realized I was more just sad it was over and I went through a sort of withdrawal from listening to it. I guess how you really judge a good story by how long it stays with you. Well done, Heller.

[viwinski]

I actually LOVE this era of writing. Heller did an immaculate job with this book, as did Vonnegut with "Slaugtherhouse Five" in making something as serious as WWII into something laughable. Satire is a great way to make things more colorful. As for "Catch-22," I loved this book. I loved the diversity of Heller's characters, and I think that what he did was shed light on an area of war that many don't think about: mental illness. I think Heller tried to show his readers that although you may find these men absurd, these men are clearly suffering from PTSD and the Army clearly doesn't care; they only care about results and getting all of the flights completed. This book also provides insight into how someone can feel "trapped." Take away the WWII background, you can clearly see a man who is fighting to be free of expectation and fear, yet there are outside forces that are hindering his progress.

Wonderful book. I've read it multiple times. It may always stay in my Top 5.

[Ruth Andanje]

I saw this book getting discussed in this movie I watched called Spud with the actor John Cleese. I am yet to read it and find out what it's about.

[Andrew Darlington]

Can you tell me more about it?
Is the worth spending time to read?

[Princewill Uchenna]

I am glad you started this topic. This is in my 'too buy list' In fact whilst ordering from amazon last night I placed it in my basket, but ended up removing it when I saw how much I had spent.