Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - Catch-22

Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

backyardjake's review

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.

Content Warnings

corvuscorax's review

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challenging dark funny reflective slow-paced

3.75

A fost o carte destul de greoaie, poate pentru că nu eram neapărat în starea potrivită ca să o citesc sau pentru că nu am trăit experiențe care să mă aducă mai aproape de subiect. Pe alături mi s-a părut o imitație ieftină a lui Kafka, dar alteori stilul lui Heller, înțesat de enumerări adjectivale ca un robinet din care curg ritmic picături, m-a vrăjit și mi s-a părut incredibil de dinamic. În a doua jumătate a cărții au fost cam 100 de pagini care mi s-au părut aproape intolerabile, dar finalul a fost excelent. Pare că o construcție pe alocuri îndoielnică se leagă în cele din urmă ca să ne dea un final care rezumă perfect cartea: sardonic, absurd, deplorabil.

Parcă aș fi vrut ceva mai multă perseverență de la Heller și pe parcursul cărții - a fost genul de roman pentru care e nevoie de multă, multă răbdare, care este însă, în cele din urmă, răsplătită.

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erebus53's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

I knew that this was a story about war, but I really had n idea what sort of flavour it was going to have. The whole idea of Catch-22 as I understood it, is that a crazy person is not fit for military duty, but to claim that you are crazy, so as to get out of service, just proves that you are sane.

This is a dark and twisted comedy. The dialogues feel like a twisted conglomeration of Monty Python, Alice in Wonderland, and M* A* S* H* with a peppering of Dr Seuss, Billy Wilder, and Abbot and Costello. From the outset you feel sure that the protagonist is a little mentally unwell, and slightly paranoid, but you soon see that there is a lot of it going around, and that they are all crazy like foxes. I kept being reminded of that quote from the movie Pump up the Volume, "you're not screwed up.. you're an un-screwed up reaction to a screwed up situation".

I think this book is about equal parts gut-bustingly hilarious and unsettlingly horrific. Through satire and parody it jabs ceaselessly at the heroism of industry and Capitalism, corruption, the glory of war murder, the need to rescue women who are in charge of their own lives, the confusion of love and lust, confusion, certainty, certain confusions, and confusing certainty.

Parts of the story are clearly hyperbole. The absurdism is rife. I'm astounded that I haven't heard more of the punchlines of these jokes in my everyday life, but maybe I have and I was just not keyed into it. It's all incredibly convoluted. The story is told in anecdotes from the points of view of various people around the protagonist. There are recurrent gags, and retellings of parts of the plot from different people, and this all feeds into the feeling of being unsettlingly adrift, and carrying on through a haze of unreality peppered with déjà vu (or déjà vécu, or presque vu..) where you see things twice, or miss them altogether.

The entire army situation is painted as blustering generals vying for status, while underfunded and overworked conscripts are roped into unwinnable situations, glory projects cost lives, bureaucratic shuffling means everything is officially lost in translation, or redacted, or just lost, and side-hustlers make out like bandits. Every sensible supposition is questioned and turned on its head, even the useful ones.. and it's all incredibly frustrating. You have to laugh or you cry and that combat, high-tension gallows humour is all you are left with... that and the haunting echos of trauma.

This is probably well worth a reread, or I may leave it on as background noise if I want a certain sort of dark chuckle.

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