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alterdd's review against another edition
4.75
- 10% lusting about women
- 85% absurd shit happening
- 5% brutal depictions of henious crimes and war
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Rape, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Vomit
whoischels's review against another edition
dark
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Probably the most chaotic book I've ever read. I can't say I've read a book that ignores sequential time so thoroughly. Heller jumps between events gracefully. You'll often find that the narrator begins to recount something that happened quite far in the future or past of the camp on Pianosa, but you don't quite develop an understanding of how distant future and past are until you've reached the end and various characters have died off and been replaced by new, untrauma-ed characters. The manipulation of time is breathtaking and exciting once you look back and think about what you've read. I'm surprised I haven't heard this book being discussed in the context of other time bending books, like To the Lighthouse, perhaps I just haven't been listening closely enough about why people read this book.
As the classic comedy of war book, it's a very comedic read. The comedic style throughout the whole thing undergoes its own character development in a way that is quite satisfying. It works to keep the horror of the experience of war at arm's length for the majority of the book and then slowly brings it closer for the end. Heller captures the comedic dichotomy between the very visceral body horror that people experience at war and the slow machine of bureaucracy.
My only complaints are that it's a behemoth to read. Heller can be describing an event that is comedic in its conception, but do so in a way that obstructs feeling, particularly in the first 2/3. I understand this to be intentional, but was still a bit frustrated with the masculine boringness of the prose. It's an odd experience to read something that has these features but still manages to be so dynamic and flexible in its plot structure.
As the classic comedy of war book, it's a very comedic read. The comedic style throughout the whole thing undergoes its own character development in a way that is quite satisfying. It works to keep the horror of the experience of war at arm's length for the majority of the book and then slowly brings it closer for the end. Heller captures the comedic dichotomy between the very visceral body horror that people experience at war and the slow machine of bureaucracy.
My only complaints are that it's a behemoth to read. Heller can be describing an event that is comedic in its conception, but do so in a way that obstructs feeling, particularly in the first 2/3. I understand this to be intentional, but was still a bit frustrated with the masculine boringness of the prose. It's an odd experience to read something that has these features but still manages to be so dynamic and flexible in its plot structure.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Misogyny and Sexual assault
bibliorama's review against another edition
challenging
dark
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
3.0
This might change. The beast is done though.
Enjoyment - 2.5
This book really takes awhile before it starts trusting you with its emotional baggage. Most of the humor was used to mask the trauma that Joseph Heller was definitely processing through the writing. The 12 year old virgin jokes got old, milo running around got old, etc. In fact, the Milo the Mayor chapter should have been cut entirely (imo), it has some of the most dated jokes and the important info learned from the chapter is reiterated in the Milo chapter. There were heavy, poignant moments but they were covered up by the writing style and dated humor.
Characters - 3
Atmosphere - 2.5
Plot - 3
Ending - 4
Style - 3.5
Overall - 3
Enjoyment - 2.5
This book really takes awhile before it starts trusting you with its emotional baggage. Most of the humor was used to mask the trauma that Joseph Heller was definitely processing through the writing. The 12 year old virgin jokes got old, milo running around got old, etc. In fact, the Milo the Mayor chapter should have been cut entirely (imo), it has some of the most dated jokes and the important info learned from the chapter is reiterated in the Milo chapter. There were heavy, poignant moments but they were covered up by the writing style and dated humor.
Characters - 3
Atmosphere - 2.5
Plot - 3
Ending - 4
Style - 3.5
Overall - 3
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Rape and Sexual violence
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
mahamsiddiqui's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
When the book first came out in 1961, the notion that war is bad might have been something new to the reader and awakening too. But, in this day and age, when there are so many opinions and lived examples available, we all know and can say with assurance that war is bad, except for fascists and dictators. So, as for the concept of 'Catch-22', it's not novel anymore.
I felt like the novel dragged in places, it also felt like I'm reading someone's diary instead of a novel, sometimes felt like a college student looked up the synonyms in a thesaurus and put every word that they could find in the book.
The book certainly is witty and funny. The characters are well written. Their humanness and fallibility and their complexities make you think or forces you to think, human beings are not black and white. War is evil. Human beings are mere pawns in it, and at the mercy of the fascists, who invoke wars to stroke their tiny egos. Through Yosarrian you see how a person in trying to do the right thing is always caught in exasperating circumstances. The skepticism of Yosarrian is something that I guess all of us go through after a certain point in life. It's relatable and quite understanding.
Moving on, I absolutely did not like and was quite frankly disgusted by the rape and sexual assault scenes. They were described jn graphic details, and I believe for which there was no need. The treatment of women as mere sex toys was very disturbing. And we know that, that's how men treat women especially those who go to war. Women and children and elderly suffer the most. Women and children are raped, brutally assaulted and all because the men who go to war think that it is their right for defending their country to gain sexual pleasures by hook or crook. I just wish that the sexual scenes were described to a minimum.
All in all, book is good, okay. 3.5 stars, .5 extra for Yosarrian. I loved him till the end. You cannot predict that the characters will have this human aspect to them when you first start the book but as you go by and the book explore similar scenes from different POVs you understand them and mildly condemn yourself for judging them too hastily.
I felt like the novel dragged in places, it also felt like I'm reading someone's diary instead of a novel, sometimes felt like a college student looked up the synonyms in a thesaurus and put every word that they could find in the book.
The book certainly is witty and funny. The characters are well written. Their humanness and fallibility and their complexities make you think or forces you to think, human beings are not black and white. War is evil. Human beings are mere pawns in it, and at the mercy of the fascists, who invoke wars to stroke their tiny egos. Through Yosarrian you see how a person in trying to do the right thing is always caught in exasperating circumstances. The skepticism of Yosarrian is something that I guess all of us go through after a certain point in life. It's relatable and quite understanding.
Moving on, I absolutely did not like and was quite frankly disgusted by the rape and sexual assault scenes. They were described jn graphic details, and I believe for which there was no need. The treatment of women as mere sex toys was very disturbing. And we know that, that's how men treat women especially those who go to war. Women and children and elderly suffer the most. Women and children are raped, brutally assaulted and all because the men who go to war think that it is their right for defending their country to gain sexual pleasures by hook or crook. I just wish that the sexual scenes were described to a minimum.
All in all, book is good, okay. 3.5 stars, .5 extra for Yosarrian. I loved him till the end. You cannot predict that the characters will have this human aspect to them when you first start the book but as you go by and the book explore similar scenes from different POVs you understand them and mildly condemn yourself for judging them too hastily.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, and War
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
c3liaiswhoiam's review
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
1.5
This was shit. It doesn't hit my good spot at all. I'm a very character-driven person, you know? If the plot is bad, I can sometimes get by if the characters are still good, but these characters are so many, and they're all unlikeable, they're all the same, they do the same shit, and they know the same people. I can't read books like this! That's not interesting to me! It's so clearly satire, but it's not funny to me. It's just depressing and frustrating to read. I need hope! This doesn't give it. I need enjoyable characters (not necessarily likeable ones) but this doesn't give it. And finally, it's just such a fucking drag. There was absolutely no reason for this book to be longer than 300 pages. None. Silch. Nu-uh. It's too long, and it's hard to keep tabs on which character you're with, and it's entirely character-driven but without character development (because it's satire...), and I really wish I hadn't needed to waste my precious time reading a book that wasn't suited to my tastes whatsoever, when I'm busy enough as it is right now. Because all this book did was frustrate me. It was just. so. frustrating. Never again do I want to think about this book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail
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
elmewhy's review against another edition
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?
*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
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, and Medical content
Minor: Suicide and Vomit
sephisticated's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Sexual assault, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Rape