A Full-Fledged Flying Circus
3,5/5 rounded up to 4 for puns and general humor :)


The plot, or: How to get grounded in 10 easy lessons? :
(disclaimer: no responsibility can be taken for direct or indirect damage resulting from the use of the information contained in the novel and/or review).

A US Army Air squadron on Pianosa Island, WW2. Captain Yossarian tries to make it out alive, while Colonel Cathcart constantly increases the number of required combat missions a soldier has to fly before they may return home.

Also, should you request an evaluation to be declared unfit to fight and be sent home, you must request the evaluation in the first place, this being considered proof enough of your own sanity. Catch-22.
In other words, Yossarian is screwed.

And yet, Catch-22 is but the towering paradox, the absurdity of absurdities, the keystone of all nonsense happening in the course of this novel, and as you read on, you are witnessing all manner of other shenanigans, scams, schemes and petty feuds going on in between a full-blown pageant of ludicrously inept officers, frauds and patent con artists.

The unchronological, polyphonic form of the novel itself mirrors the abysmal failure of communication and the triumph of upstarts, disinformation and publicity (we call that 'faire-savoir' in French).

In the end, Catch-22 offers a grotesque carnival of conceit and malice, pettiness and callousness, cruelty and ambition. Mostly slapstick and zany in the early stages, darker undertones kick later, offering a variegated, complex novel.





Above, the building block of Milo Minderbinder's syndicate


n  Buddy read with Tara - 23/05/2020n


BOOK/MOVIE ADVICE :

Goofiness department:
Sin noticias de Gurb
A Confederacy of Dunces

Paranoia & personality split division:
Clans of the Alphane Moon
Lies, Inc.

Bureaucratic absurdity and self-agrandizement locker:
The Castle
Paroles

Propaganda studio:
Leningrad: State of Siege
La Grande Guerre

Airplanes hangar:
L’Équipage
La Bretagne dans la bataille de l'Atlantique (about aerial warfare during WW2)

Fantastical realism conglomerate:
Rigodon
Berlin Alexanderplatz
(esp. regarding the 'Eternal City' chapter in Catch-22 )

By the way, I find a striking number of common traits between Colonel Cathcart in Catch-22 and Luzhin in Crime and Punishment :)


FILMS:

- About civilian life during war and in the aftermath:

n  Grave of the Fireflies - Isao Takahatan

n  Germany Year Zero - Rossellinin

n  Under the Flags of the Rising Sun - Kinji Fukasakun



- Absurd:
Brazil - Terry Gilliam (and all materials by Monty Python)

n  Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb - Stanley Kubrickn



MUSIC:
Siberian Khatru - Yes

Man of War / Big Boots - Radiohead

Soldier Side - System of a Down

I read this book years ago, and now I am bringing this review to Goodreads.

Where do I begin?

This is a difficult book to penetrate. Heller is kind of nuts. Okay, I began somewhere. His intention, I believe is to illustrate the absurdism of the war, as this one was written at the time of the Vietnam war. He writes about the daily life of the soldiers of the U.S. Army. Within the book is a passage that tells us about the meaning of Catch-22:

"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.

"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.

"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed."

The cast of characters is insane, and there are so many how does one keep count. But you know what, most think this is the finest novel of the 20th century.

Although it garnered no awards, it has remained consistently in print, and has sold millions of copies since its publication in 1961. It obviously was made in to a successful 1970 movie.

It is quirky, and classic, and nuts. And to be honest, I'm still not sure I get it.

milo you're not the boss of me, you can't tell me what to do! i am going to continue fighting, masturbating, and eventually becoming a statistic!

I certainly don't like all classics!

There are many different kinds of humor. It was this book's particular humor that destroyed the book for me. The humor is satirical, and usually I like satirical humor, but not this author's satire. The humor starts off manageable, but then goes too far. Too exaggerated! First it becomes simply a bit absurd, but by the book's end it had become quite simply ridiculous. The humor diminishes the book's message.

I remember when the book came out. It is definitely a book of the 60s. I agree totally with the message conveyed. The book is a criticism of the military, war and its insidious spread into the market. The message is important.

The way the author speaks of women certainly did not add to my enjoyment of the book.

Audiobook narration by Trevor White was in fact rather good, even if he did dramatize the reading.

While I agree with everyone who says the book is important, I also think it could have been chopped down by about 300 pages.
The story is about how lives are ruined when the wrong people are put in charge, why war isn't some grand adventure, and the ridiculous nature of bureaucracy in general.
It's not so much funny as it is satirical, and the joke wears thin as it spins in circles with nonsensical stories that add very little to the overall reading experience.
My opinion, of course.



I am extremely glad I read this because most people know what you mean when you say Catch-22, but maybe not everyone knows it originated from this book.

n  Yossarian looked at him soberly and tried another approach. "Is Orr crazy?"
"He sure is," Doc Daneeka said.
"Can you ground him?"
"I sure can. But first he has to ask me to. That's part of the rule."
"Then why doesn't he ask you to?"
"Because he's crazy," Doc Daneeka said. "He has to be crazy to keep flying combat missions after all the close calls he's had. Sure, I can ground Orr. But first he has to ask me to."
"That's all he has to do to be grounded?"
"That's all. Let him ask me."
"And then you can ground him?" Yossarian asked.
"No. Then I can't ground him."
"You mean there's a catch?"
"Sure there's a catch," Doc Daneeka replied. "Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy."
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.
"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.
"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.n



I appreciate learning more about the source material for stuff like this. But the story doesn't go anywhere but in a sideways circle, so I was absolutely gagging for this to be over with after a relatively short time. And this is not a relatively short book. By the end of it, I had exhausted all of my patience and was annoyed by everything from the dialogue to the character themselves.



If you're a reader like me who needs things to kind of go somewhere in a somewhat concise time period, then you may need to temper your expectations with this one.
Still, I'm not sorry I ticked this one off the bucket list.

Hmmm. So, one of my Goodreads groups had WWII as a theme, and this was one of the books we read this month. I hadn’t read this before, so was keen to try it. It is a classic, after all, so I thought it would be interesting.

I downloaded this on Audible (the book itself is wonderfully read by Trevor White, who did much to make this outing bearable). My husband watched warily as I downloaded the title, said blankly, “you won’t like that,” and turned back to the snooker. This shows that, at least, he knows my tastes, as I really found this a struggle.

This is, of course, the story of Yossarian, and his squadron, who are doomed to fly never-ending missions in WWII. The number of missions keep increasing and, it seems, that Yossarian – who, understandably, feels that everyone is out to get him killed – will never manage to get sent home.

Without doubt, this is a clever satire. The enemy, as far as Yossarian is concerned, are his superior officers, all colluding in what he sees, all too clearly, as his future demise. There are a host of other characters, and it takes some time to work out who is who and what their place in the storyline is. Some of these characters are female, but –well – they are hardly part of the story.

I suppose you expect banter, and sexist talk, in a novel written in this period. The sort of behaviour, shrugged off as ‘locker room’ talk, not that long ago. Just about every female who ventures, warily, into the pages of this book is grabbed, groped, abused and insulted. Women are on the game, out for money, looking for sex and play no other role than to excite violent sexual talk, dreams and behaviour, in the men. Somehow, this goes well beyond casual sexism.

Had I found this book funny, then perhaps it would have helped, but I didn’t really. It could have just been me, but I found this an uncomfortable, unpleasant read.

“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.”

Set during World War II, Catch-22 details the experiences of Captain Yossarian and the other airmen in his camp as they try to maintain their sanity while fulfilling their service requirements so that they can return home.

I did it! I conquered the book I was dreading most and I made it all the way to the end..... and it actually surprised me? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not head over heels for it, but I took a lot from this one and I’m very much glad I read it.

Catch-22 is often hilarious at times, but beneath all the satire and humour, there is a very bleak and harrowing depiction of war. And towards the end I actually found that I was emotionally attached to some of the characters?! Completely unexpected!

I really appreciated some of the techniques that Heller used, one of which was using the current number of missions the military personnel needed to complete in order to go home, as a way of marking exactly where we are in the timeline of events. Another was the use of each chapter to introduce a new character (or a place), but inevitably the story always veered back towards Yossarian and the other core characters.

This book is just so CLEVER. All the little contradictions at play and the commentary on how nonsensical war can really be. I really am in awe of how well-constructed and impactful it is.

Now why didn’t I give it 5 stars? The repetition, whilst effective at times, also became irritating. Some of the characters were hard to distinguish from others. And some parts just plain bored the life outta me...

BUT for me, it was more good than bad and I wouldn’t put anyone off reading it. It might just surprise you too! 3 stars.

4,5*

Sorprendido por una propuesta tan arriesgada, novedosa y transgresora. El prota Yossarian pasa al top de mis personajes de ficción favoritos, vaya tipo...

¿De qué habla la novela? Por momentos es pura comedia del absurdo al más puro estilo Ionesco o el propio Beckett: conversaciones tan graciosas como ridículas, pero indudablemente con un fin último: ridiculizar la guerra y a los oficiales militares que la fomentan e idolatran, apropiándose conceptos tales como patria, deber, el colectivo por encima de la vida propia, etc.

"-El comandante Coverley es una persona noble y maravillosa, y todo el mundo lo admira.
- Es un viejo imbecil, que no tiene derecho a actuar como un joven imbécil, ¿dónde está?¿muerto?
-Nadie lo sabe, ha desaparecido.
- ¿Lo ve? Imagínese lo que es un hombre de su edad arriesgando la poca vida que le queda por algo tan absurdo como una patria"

¿Cuál es el gran aporte de J. Heller? La irreverencia total, la falta de vergüenza, ese absurdo al que aludía antes que curiosamente empasta tan bien con la profundidad y seriedad del mundo militar. Por momentos tiene toques también de la comedia de enredo, situaciones disparatadas, ridículas. 

Novelas antibélicas hay muchas, pero si algo distingue a Catch-22 es lo temprano de la crítica a la guerra desde el humor loco y por momentos surrealista. Con la guerra de Vietnam casi nació un género, humor, humor ácido, más serio...pero a poco de terminar la II GM es muy innovadora esta novela.

Crítica feroz a la guerra, a los mandos militares donde prima la casta del escalafón de mando inútil, prepotente, que desprecia las buenas ideas de los mandos inferiores y en especial desprecia al culto o al inteligente.

4/5

Catch-22 stretches some limitations that are so normative in books, that I couldn’t help but to love it for that. The timeline jumps, that I could easily understand can get tedious to follow, fortunately I found relatively easy to get along with. Probably because I don’t believe that having a perfect time-setting for every scene was of a great importance. The humor also was fantastic, and if I’d had one criticism would be that, in the middle, the story is dragging, some 80 pages are extra weight.
Other than that, I think the reader needs to dive into this leaving some pre-existing knowledge of how the world works or what’s logical and what’s not, even what’s good and evil, at the door. Working with the book’s new rules of logic, bureaucracy, levels of authority, capitalism, sexuality, will help you understand it and its characters better in what it seems to be a word of absurdity.
I will re-read with great pleasure, since I’m certain that I’ll discover new ideas to think of, new situations to laugh at, new tragedies to contemplate, with every new read.

This is the most insane book I have ever come across. I hated it on one page for being dull and next I would love it for being super hilarious.

“Insanity is contagious.”

I believe writing a tragedy is easier task but writing something which can make the person reading laugh aloud is something extraordinary.

I will definitely recommend this to everyone who has lot of patience with book and can laugh at any crazy plate served to them.

During my years of being a reader, I have realised one thing , every book is unique, every book has different set of perspectives. So when we enter the world of one particular book, we have to change ourselves in its mould. If we be stubborn, the result would be disastrous and we would end up hating it.


I'm not good at explaining so I will try to explain by giving an example here. If we are reading a fantasy where there's magic and witches and centaurs, if we keep chuckling at every point "huh they don't exist, this is so stupid" we won't be able to enjoy the book and look beyond its flaws.

Catch-22 is among those books where you are supposed to enter with a particular mindset (read crazy) to enjoy it.

Just keep your brains aside and enjoy the crazy rollercoaster ride and you will not be disappointed. If you start making sense of the things that happen in catch-22 or characters that are dipshit crazy, you wouldn't enjoy it.

“Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three. Even among men lacking all distinction he inevitably stood out as a man lacking more distinction than all the rest, and people who met him were always impressed by how unimpressive he was.”

Crazy or insane doesn't even describe this one. It makes no sense most of the times and that's the beauty of it.

“What do you do when it rains?"
The captain answered frankly. "I get wet.”

"What do you when you come across a book like catch 22?"
My answer. "I laugh out loud."

Catch-22 is definitely not the easiest read.
I really struggled with it being non-chronological and the the amount of characters. Part of the reason I struggled was because of my lack of knowledge of armies/war.

HoweverI did enjoy the absurdity of it as well as the dark humour and felt that many parts of the novel were genius.

I have tried three times and can not drop into this book. It's too disjointed my brain doesn't work that way I guess. I wanted to like it. I loved the premise, the concept. It just didn't work and I'm more disappointed about it than anyone else. :-0