Reviews

This book could have been a short story, and I probably would have appreciated it more as a short story. There is really only one solid chapter with any meaning; the rest is nonsense.

thechaliceofaries's review against another edition

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3.0

I really did enjoy most of this. The messy chapters and weirdly large host of characters and erratic timelines were all quite confusing at first and I was tempted to give up within the first 100 pages because I just felt like I had no clue what I was reading and nothing was making sense and nothing seemed to be going anywhere. And then it hit me around the 100-page mark that all of those irregularities are the point of this novel. The way this novel is written is meant to mirror the chaos, unpredictability and confusion of war, and once I got that - the rest of this book got much more fun to read. The sarcastic narration which annoyed me at first began to resemble a sitcom (I thought it was quite like the narrator on the show Arrested Development). I began to laugh out loud at the stupidity and satire. I also had moments of genuine emotion where through all the crude jokes and lightheartedness, the clearly unjust and painful realities of war shone through and broke my heart. I did alternate between reading this and listening to the Audible audiobook version (which I highly recommend btw!!) and found that both methods complemented each other nicely in my experience of this novel.

Unfortunately, I really can’t bring myself to give this more than three stars because as a woman I just found it very difficult to stomach the extensive misogyny written into this book. As great as the rest of it was, there were full on paragraphs describing sexual assault, most of which is approached in a very careless and nonchalant manner throughout. Many characters that I liked were instantly ruined for me because they participated in the pointless harassment and objectification of women and seemingly suffered no consequences for their actions. Don’t get me wrong, I do understand why this book is a cult classic, but I personally could not bring myself to forgive this particular shortcoming.

saradawn's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny slow-paced

4.0

alreadyemily's review against another edition

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4.0

This book is just as obliquely hilarious and quite a bit darker than I remembered. I'd say something like 70% of the sentences are jokes in one way or another. 25% are dark, scary and/or sad parts of humanity and war. I'm willing to risk reading the sequel.

wout99's review against another edition

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challenging sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

flatfish4u's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

backyardjake's review against another edition

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dark funny sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I *did not* find the majority of this book funny. Some of the humor was lost on me, due to a factor of language, different sense of it, things that haven't aged well (though I doubt they were meant to even at the time). What I did connect with was the dark nature underlying the events and paradoxes. The horror and reality of the situation the group was in, with their incompetent command and soul sucking bombing runs. No wonder the average character is a bit wacky. Entertaining the nonsensical makes more sense than the cruel truth of what can happen on mission and all the other unfair and repugnant things that fill the world.

Some thoughts:

-The Catch itself is a paradox that not only does not make sense, it is intentional for the purposes of exercising power. As we see later in the novel it does not just apply to flying. I do not believe it is explicitly stated but this is my take away.
- I would like for Arrfy to be gelded, beat as badly as Bogs was in Shawshank Redemption, and then serve the majority of his life in the worst brig the military had available.

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