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seapotatohowisitalrtaken's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Vomit, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Antisemitism
friesenag's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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
3.0
This book is so interesting considering that the author himself was a B25 bombardier and that this is not speculation and the plot isn't too far fetched because it is based on his personal experiences in the war. I think Heller perfectly balanced the humor of the absurdity of how the U.S. Air Force was run and the gruesomeness of what war does to a person. He highlights the silliness of rank and order and doing things just because you're told and how that has more control on weather a man lives or dies rather than his own actions and how those actions along with the trauma of their compatriots dying makes them all go insane.
The way Heller writes gave me a headache though, as the plot would go back and forth I had to keep my spark notes open to make sure I was really comprehending what was happening. The first half of the book there is no chronological order and the repetition of words, phrases, or actions also created maximum confusion. When I think about it more it definitely is a plot device to give the book a lack of structure and repeat things which gives the reader a sensation of the chaos that is occurring in every single characters brains and on the base. Insanity and deja vu are major plot points in the book and I think Heller wanted to amplify it in the readers, which did give me the feeling that I was going crazy while reading this book. I see the genius and deliberate work that he put into it, but that does not mean I have to enjoy it.
I want to preface this last part by saying I know that this guy is like a boomer and it was written in 1961, but the MISOGYNY in this book was APPALLING. Women were only mentioned in a sexual connotation and used as a plot device and weren't really well thought out in my opinion. There was a character that wasn't even given a name and just referred to as "Nately's Whore" the whole time and she was bored and not interested in Nately until he "saved her" and then tried to control her and THEN he DIED and all of a sudden she cared enough about him to try to kill Yossarian???? Idk, there was just not a single female character that wasn't a sex object or stupid or a plot device.
Overall this book is good on the pretense that it was anti-war and the structure of the book makes you feel sick to your stomach, much like the structure of war and American bureaucracy, but I can't look past the misogyny, sexism, racism, etc. to give this more than three stars. I know I'm looking at this in a modern lens but there's not way I can separate the good and bad of this book. I would be very concerned if a man said this was their favorite book, its definitely an interesting read but I would classify it as pretty problematic.
The way Heller writes gave me a headache though, as the plot would go back and forth I had to keep my spark notes open to make sure I was really comprehending what was happening. The first half of the book there is no chronological order and the repetition of words, phrases, or actions also created maximum confusion. When I think about it more it definitely is a plot device to give the book a lack of structure and repeat things which gives the reader a sensation of the chaos that is occurring in every single characters brains and on the base. Insanity and deja vu are major plot points in the book and I think Heller wanted to amplify it in the readers, which did give me the feeling that I was going crazy while reading this book. I see the genius and deliberate work that he put into it, but that does not mean I have to enjoy it.
I want to preface this last part by saying I know that this guy is like a boomer and it was written in 1961, but the MISOGYNY in this book was APPALLING. Women were only mentioned in a sexual connotation and used as a plot device and weren't really well thought out in my opinion. There was a character that wasn't even given a name and just referred to as "Nately's Whore" the whole time and she was bored and not interested in Nately until he "saved her" and then tried to control her and THEN he DIED and all of a sudden she cared enough about him to try to kill Yossarian???? Idk, there was just not a single female character that wasn't a sex object or stupid or a plot device.
Overall this book is good on the pretense that it was anti-war and the structure of the book makes you feel sick to your stomach, much like the structure of war and American bureaucracy, but I can't look past the misogyny, sexism, racism, etc. to give this more than three stars. I know I'm looking at this in a modern lens but there's not way I can separate the good and bad of this book. I would be very concerned if a man said this was their favorite book, its definitely an interesting read but I would classify it as pretty problematic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, and War
Moderate: Antisemitism, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting
Minor: Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Medical content, Medical trauma, Alcohol, and Classism
tildafin16's review against another edition
dark
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
This is my husband’s favourite he told me he read it all in one day drinking on the beach (how??) and still remembers it all. Apart from showing you how different my taste is to my husband 🤣, this also clearly is the experience of many fans.
For me, I just don’t enjoy absurdist and repetitive writing; I was assured that it all comes together in the final third and becomes amazing; well, yeah, I guess I can see that , but by that time having slugged 300 plus pages of complex, constantly trying-to-be-funny-and-clever, absurd wordplay - I just didn’t care that much anymore and the impact of the ending section was lessened for me. I have read such gruesome depictions of war elsewhere and been able to immerse myself in the writing but for me, I just couldn’t with this. There was one scene with Milo Minderbinder (the names made me want to scream) that made me laugh, I didn’t laugh out loud often as lots of folk have. (And it’s easy to make me laugh! This is just not my humour)
Finally as many have mentioned the depiction of female characters is just appalling. If he was making a point (and I am not convinced he really was) by this, then he succeeded in rendering all of his main male characters including his hero, absolute arseholes in that regard.
I always feel bad when I dislike such well loved novels but in that regard this is way up there with Walden (shudder) and Life of Pi for me.
For me, I just don’t enjoy absurdist and repetitive writing; I was assured that it all comes together in the final third and becomes amazing; well, yeah, I guess I can see that , but by that time having slugged 300 plus pages of complex, constantly trying-to-be-funny-and-clever, absurd wordplay - I just didn’t care that much anymore and the impact of the ending section was lessened for me. I have read such gruesome depictions of war elsewhere and been able to immerse myself in the writing but for me, I just couldn’t with this. There was one scene with Milo Minderbinder (the names made me want to scream) that made me laugh, I didn’t laugh out loud often as lots of folk have. (And it’s easy to make me laugh! This is just not my humour)
Finally as many have mentioned the depiction of female characters is just appalling. If he was making a point (and I am not convinced he really was) by this, then he succeeded in rendering all of his main male characters including his hero, absolute arseholes in that regard.
I always feel bad when I dislike such well loved novels but in that regard this is way up there with Walden (shudder) and Life of Pi for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Sexual harassment, and War
milo10000's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-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
5.0
I never read this in high school, choosing Vonnegut instead when it was offered. I don't know if I would've enjoyed it as much then, but reading it now, it's a wonderful book.
Heller's exploration of absurdism and the evils that can be perpetuated by "just going with the flow" is masterful. Yossarian's journey out of the hospital and back into it again is at times both hilarious and hopeless. Highly recommend to anyone who doesn't mind a bit of impropriety
Heller's exploration of absurdism and the evils that can be perpetuated by "just going with the flow" is masterful. Yossarian's journey out of the hospital and back into it again is at times both hilarious and hopeless. Highly recommend to anyone who doesn't mind a bit of impropriety
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Sexism, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Rape
loverboy's review against another edition
dark
funny
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexism, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Rape, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Suicide, Religious bigotry, and Car accident
nnannanna's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I get the point of the book. I finally liked what I was reading at chapter 39. The book is a satiricak telling of men fighting in a fictional war in a fictional island. It goes to detail on how ridiculous the war and the people in the war is and shows us a good deal of sides and views on the matters. However this makes the book extremely repetitive and slow paced. Same stories are told again and again, through so many characters I stopped being able to keep track of them. I didn't need 38 chapters to finally like one.
The way Joseph Heller writes isn't to my liking in the slightest. The explanations of events are verbose, jumping from place to place and character to character. You start a chapter from a plane in the middle of a war and end it in a fully unrelated story that happened 10 years prior. Finally I gave up on trying to understand everything and just plowed through to reach the end.
Lastly the role of women in the book was just... Not? Every single female character is somehow connected to sex. Either they're a sex worker, a nurse that gets sexually assaulted or somehow sex is written into their description. Maybe there is a point to this and it belongs to the satire but I did not catch that.
The way Joseph Heller writes isn't to my liking in the slightest. The explanations of events are verbose, jumping from place to place and character to character. You start a chapter from a plane in the middle of a war and end it in a fully unrelated story that happened 10 years prior. Finally I gave up on trying to understand everything and just plowed through to reach the end.
Lastly the role of women in the book was just... Not? Every single female character is somehow connected to sex. Either they're a sex worker, a nurse that gets sexually assaulted or somehow sex is written into their description. Maybe there is a point to this and it belongs to the satire but I did not catch that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Sexual assault, War, and Injury/Injury detail
bellaklimperauge's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Murder, and War
seanml's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Reading anything called a ‘classic’ is a gamble; you don’t have to go too far back for them to be super problematic. In this instance, Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 ended up being a mixed bag. It’s a comedy novel that takes place during World War II, and was written in the 1960s. It is very much a product of its time. The book is “clever,” but clever in the way that a high school freshman would ask you “Is water wet?” and then once you answer they’re prepared to argue the complete opposite point in order to confuse you. In Catch-22 the military is basically run by the Marx Brothers: misunderstandings are frequent, and nothing is safe from being a gag to the point of death. Each chapter is in a way a skit focusing on a soldier or a commander, one of the handful that the book revolves around. They range from entertaining to infuriating. Luckily our protagonist is a soldier named Yossarian who happens to be the only sensical character throughout the entire thing. So as I went crazy from the never-ending chapters, Yossarian was right there with me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t relate to him in the chapter when he sexually assaults a nurse out of the blue. Yeah, this is the 1960s and every female character has at least one line about the shape of their breasts. This does not in any way pass the Bechdel test. In any case, the book does a good job at portraying the mania-fueled spiral of someone told to die for the good of their country again and again and again. Did I misunderstand most of it? Maybe. Should I read it again? Maybe, it depends on if it was good. Was it good? I’d have to read it again. Catch-22. 6.5/10.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and War
Minor: Cannibalism
beiiadonna's review against another edition
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Sexual harassment, and War
Minor: Racism
baba4yaga's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
People will often talk about the dark humor, the political commentary. What has confused me is that so rarely do people talk of the sheer beauty of the writing. The intricate structure, the prose itself, one of the most lovely I’ve ever seen. I’ve forgiven much worse books for much less.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism
Moderate: Sexual assault