Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Catch-22

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Catch-22, by Joseph Heller

9 reviews

loverboy's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

elmewhy's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark funny informative fast-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

2.5

~~2.5 Stars~~ 11th September 2022
*rounded to 3 stars

I think it’s fair to say that this review is a modern Gen Z take on a classic that was not written for me or for people of my time. This book was just not for me. While I appreciate that this book was written at a different time, I couldn’t forgive some parts of it. I decided to split my review into a pro and con list.

Pro
It’s a classic for a reason. The origins and concept of the term ‘Catch 22’ is genius. After researching this book, I can see why it was so popular, especially with young people during the Vietnam War.
War Representation. I did appreciate the insanity of war portrayal and the desperateness this led to. I’ve not seen a lot of portrayals of this in classic or modern media, and it was an interesting take to see.
Format. Polarising, but I enjoyed the format. It is disjointed with sporadic short stories mentioned, which are revealed later in the book, the re-read ability is huge, and you can reread parts with a brand new understanding. There are many characters, but this format taught me whos who much more quickly. Although not comparable, I did get a Grand Budapest Hotel vibe from the format/humour/visualisation.

Con
Misogyny. There’s a lot of this; in fact, I don’t believe a female character is mentioned in a way that wasn’t sexual or perverse or made them out to be less than deranged. Here are some examples:
One character is named “Nately’s Whore”, who is a prop prostitute for a character until they get mentioned more and becomes a psycho stalker killer. Lots of inappropriate touching, mostly sexual assault and the women don’t always seem to care?! Mentions of underage women (as young as 12) and virgins are sexualised - although we never see this, it is idolised heavy. **Trigger!** A very heartless and glossed-over mention of a rape where the female dies from it and gets thrown out of a window, with no consequence even though the police turn up, but they chose to focus on other topics rather than the raped and murdered women lying in the street.
Racism. N-word usage - only really in the beginning. Again, something which is more prominent in older books as it was the norm during this time but does not hold up in the modern day.
Humour. I just did not get the humour, there were parts in which I thought ohh I get why people think it's funny, but I definitely wouldn’t call this hilarious. The humour was repetitive (the same word play humour beat to death), the context was just not funny, and, for me, the misogynistic, classism and racist overtones overshadowed the book for it to be funny.
If you’re a fan of adult-level pantomime jokes, you’ll be fine.

Ultimately, while you get to say you’ve read this notorious classical book and boast to all your friends that you’re smart and read more than YA/fantasy/preferred genre, you actually have to put yourself through it - so how’s that for a Catch 22?

Content Warnings

lauramcc7's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark funny sad slow-paced

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

2.5

Content Warnings

numerous_bees's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

This is an incredibly slow book, with approximately the first two thirds feeling like setup. It's written in a meandering, stream of consciousness, style that, while not difficult to read, is often difficult to fathom the purpose of (though that, itself, may be purposeful).
The early chapters occasionally feel like reading an episode of M*A*S*H, but I'd call it humorous or wry rather than funny. It gets significantly less so as it goes on, culminating in a harrowing final third. There is no humour there, there is no purpose to the many deaths, there is only the naked desperation of a man trying to survive a brutal, senseless bureaucracy and a brutal, bloody war. Nothing is surprising any more, no matter how ridiculous, they just become just another awful thing about an awful situation. Of course,

Spoiler

Milo has removed and sold the morphine from the first aid kit when Snowden needs it

. Of course,

Spoiler

Nately's whore (who never gets a name) appears to teleport around the country to stab Yossarian

. Why wouldn't these things happen?
At the time of writing, 12% of people have tagged this book as "lighthearted", and frankly I hope they're okay.

This was not a fun read and, at the halfway mark, I had decided to pass the book on after I finished it, but now I have turned the last page, it's sitting with me. I think, on balance, I would recommend it but it was not enjoyable.

Content Warnings