детально розказую на моєму ютубі: https://youtu.be/knSdVe2gUoI?si=7oFCf...

— Вони хочуть мене вбити, — спокійно мовив Йосаріан.

— Ніхто не хоче тебе вбити, — вигукнув Клевінджер.

— Тоді чому вони в мене стріляють? — спитав Йосаріан.

— Вони стріляють у всіх, — відповів Клевінджер. — Вони хочуть убити всіх.

— А в чому різниця?

…

хотя це і сатира, але сатира гірка. Як на мій погляд, то смішного в книзі мало, адже куди не глянь — всюди пастка. пастка-22. Геллер показує нам армію як окрему верству населення, яке живе за правилами, неписаними для цивільних. В тексті є боротьба внутрішня і зовнішня, жага до життя і таке відчайдушне бажання бути просто звичайною людиною, а не солдатом. На жаль, книга буде актуальна доти, поки людство воює. А, отже, ще багато часу.

**Catch-22, Joseph Heller**

Catch-22 is a highly regarded satirical novel penned by the American author Joseph Heller. He initiated the writing process in 1953, and the novel made its debut in 1961. Widely regarded as one of the most significant literary works of the twentieth century, it employs a unique non-chronological third-person omniscient narration. This narrative style allows the story to unfold by describing events from the perspectives of various characters. The separate story lines are presented out of sequence, causing the timeline to develop in tandem with the plot.

The novel has been published with different titles in Iran, such as "کلک مرغابی" and "تبصره 22". It has been translated by several individuals and published by various publishers. The discussions and dialogues within the novel, like the one about Yossarian's decision not to fly anymore due to his fear of being shot down by the enemy, while his comrades have a different view, form the central conflict of the story. Yossarian's perception of war as a personal matter rather than a social event is a key aspect. If everyone could view war like him, perhaps fewer wars would occur.
The essence of war is based on the idea of moving beyond the individual and serving a society or an idea and belief. Heller's main trick to question the argument of war is to return to the individuality of those who are supposed to be soldiers. The issue of individual beliefs in the face of a war-seeking society is the central point of Heller's novel, which is present throughout the text and has taken shape in its form. Many critics have disliked this writing style, but it is also a fact that Catch-22, along with other anti-war literary works like "برهنه ها و مرده ها" by Norman Mailer and "سلاخ خانه ی شماره پنج" by Kurt Vonnegut, are considered among the three great anti-war American literary works.
All three authors had some involvement in the events of World War II and experienced war up close. Joseph Heller, a descendant of Russian Jewish immigrants, joined the American Army in 1942 at the age of nineteen. During the final years of the war, he served as a bombardier in B-52 bombers, participating in sixty combat missions. (In the bombers of that era, gunnery, navigation, and target acquisition for dropping bombs were each separate responsibilities.)

Date of Compilation: 16/06/1399 Hijri Shamsi; 24/05/1400 Hijri Shamsi; A. Sharbiani

From cleaning my TBR project.

I guess this isn't my type of humour. I've tried to read it a few times, but I think it's time to let go of this classic.

It's just too long to battle through. I find myself losing interest and getting distracted along the way.

Maybe it's a great book for others, but for me, it doesn't seem to click.

I have so many other books on my TBR list that I'm more excited about reading.

I don't want to waste my time on something that doesn't engage me.

So, with a bit of regret, I'm going to remove this classic from my TBR and move on to something new.

Who knows, maybe I'll come back to it later in life and have a different perspective.

But for now, it's time to say goodbye.

The book under discussion presents a rather unique reading experience.

There are numerous conversations within it that add to its distinctiveness. For instance, the exchange between Jen and Nigel is quite absurd. Jen initially claims not to like the book but then changes her stance multiple times, leading to a rather comical back-and-forth.

I believe Heller's intention was to showcase the chaos of war by not presenting events in a chronological order. This lack of order makes it difficult for the reader to determine the sequence of events, much like the confusion in a real war. Additionally, the absurd conversations, such as the one between Jen and Nigel, seem to highlight the ridiculousness of war.

However, I'm not sure if annoying the readers was one of his goals. To be honest, after page 150 or so, I was a bit put off by the 460 pages of absurdity. Most of the characters were one-dimensional, and it was hard to distinguish between them except by their names.

Despite these drawbacks, there are some redeeming qualities. The chocolate-covered cotton balls are a hilarious touch that will stay with me for a long time. There are also some really sad moments. It's strange how I cared about the characters when they died, even though I knew very little about them other than what they ate or their preferences regarding whores.

Overall, I would still recommend the book. While the ridiculousness does reach a point where it becomes a bit much for my personal tolerance level, I still appreciate the unique perspective it offers on war and human nature.

I spent a long time reading it. It has twenty-two characteristics that make it difficult to read easily and quickly. No matter how many books you have in your reading list. One of its characteristics is the non-linear narration of the story. We can't say there is no story because there is characterization and a plot, and it comes from a fragmented narrative. But it doesn't have a single unified story. Because if we look at it from Yossarian's perspective, there is, but in the middle, many other things happen that make us not see Yossarian as the main character. We are dealing with a postmodern story that breaks the ordinary pattern.

The second characteristic is the space of the story and the characters. There are many characters, many details, and the setting is World War II. Such a story can't be read quickly. Otherwise, the details, characters, and the space of the story won't be clear in our minds. On the other hand, for me, the space of World War II is so far from my mind that the author has taken great trouble to create this space. And it's not ordinary creation. It's through dialogue and characters. We are dealing with a really professional writer, not one who just makes up a story.

In the reviews, I saw that some people pointed out that the story loses its rhythm and the many characters and details make it difficult for people to read and get tired. Yes, unfortunately, this is the case. That is, those who read it when it was written read all of this with great attention. But for us, the space of our minds is a tough world. But on the other hand, its literary characteristics are such that it must be read. Besides being one of the best examples of anti-war literature. In the preface of the book, it is also mentioned that Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" is a significant work in American literature and it is important for students to read it. Therefore, it's not something that can be ignored, but it also annoys the reader a lot.

I will also bring two excerpts from the reviews in my own review.

From "Weeper":

"Regarding the disregard for human life, racial discrimination, oppression and tyranny, empty and worthless dreams, the sacrifice of humans for the excessive ambitions of the so-called responsible, the rich and the powerful by using humans, the disregard of humans for oppression and each other, and many other concepts are very well, cleverly, and professionally described with a bitter satire."
"This book is really a masterpiece and extraordinary. It should be read several times and something new should be remembered each time. Read it deeply, patiently, and with enthusiasm."

And from Seyyed:

"Finally, I should make two remarks about the book. The first problem is that the aging and payment of the characters are not at a level that can keep the reader company for 500 pages and it sometimes loses its rhythm. Sometimes it seems that Heller just wants to stretch the story, some characters are redundant, and some events don't have much appeal for me."

Especially, some events really didn't have any appeal for me. I thought maybe I didn't understand what was going on. There were also some places where I didn't understand. The space of war is a very strange space. The author's attempt until now has been quite remarkable.

The Absurdity of Bureaucracy
17 December 2015


This book, "Catch-22," has made a significant impact. It not only introduced the widely used phrase "Catch-22" into the English language, but also influenced modern literature. It can be categorized as absurdist literature, similar to "Waiting for Godot." Despite being hilarious, it uses comedy to expose the hopelessness and meaninglessness of modern society and the stupidity of bureaucracy.
The theme of the book is bureaucracy, and the whole premise is based on the absurdity of bloated bureaucracy. The way time is construed in the book is interesting, with most of the action set in a timeless universe. As the story progresses, time becomes important, and the world we have become used to starts to change.
The novel is very character centric, with each chapter named after a specific character. The main protagonist is Yossarian, a soldier who no longer wants to fly and is constantly looking for ways to get home. The characters in the book are truly great, such as Major Major, who has a unique name and cannot be promoted or demoted.
In conclusion, if you haven't read this book, you should go and read it. It is a must-read for anyone interested in modern literature and the absurdity of bureaucracy. For those who want to explore these ideas further, I have written a blog post.

I initially gave this book 4 stars based on my memory of having read it something like 40 years ago.

Actually, that memory remained pretty vivid. In my re-reading of it, I recalled the story and tone of the book. But this time through, I liked it even better. I found it crazy and darkly hilarious.

It becomes increasingly dark and absurd, centered on Catch 22 as an absurd cosmic comi-tragic joke. As the absurdity turns darker, it is devastatingly sad.

This is a big, messy, crazy, wonderful, amazing book. It is one of the great anti-war novels of all time. Hell, it is one of the great novels of all time!

The Modern library lists it as #7 in the 100 best novels of the twentieth century. Most 20th century lists have it near the top. And after rereading it, I am sure they are right.

So, if you like a good war or find it bracing to get a whiff of napalm in the morning, read this book or any other book about war, please.

You will see the true horror and absurdity that war brings, and maybe it will make you think twice about the glorification of war.

For so many of us who grew up in the USA, our high school teachers assigned Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" as required reading, and I was among those students. I'm not entirely sure why it was a requirement. Maybe it was some kind of Catch-22 logic where, since everyone else was assigning it, it must be great and we must read it. I don't really remember liking the novel back then, perhaps for no more substantial reason than that it just wasn't my style.

Reading the novel now, in the middle of my life, my opinion (or my literary taste) has changed little. However, today, I can attempt to add a few deeper insights to the simple statement of "not my style."

In this second reading, I realize what fails to appeal to me is Heller's slapstick, absurdist, repetitive, and dizzyingly circular style of storytelling. At the same time, I fully understand that this is also the appeal of the novel for many: its absurdity. Indeed, time has proven the truth of Heller's topic that war has little logic or reason in the real world. It is mostly born of individual and governmental insanity, power plays, and mere whim, with male egos clashing and chests thumping. When one considers all the other possible ways to resolve conflicts, few wars seem to have a good reason for happening. While leaders sit safely in their secure offices on fortified hilltops, the common soldier takes all the risks, offers up his or her body for battering, endures indescribable torments in battle, and often makes the ultimate sacrifice of life.

So, I slogged through the pages like a good soldier. Characters jumped forward and backward in time, one event led to no other meaningful event, resolution rarely made an appearance, and the dance of insanity continued to take center stage. Even as I slogged, I could not deny how well Heller's writing reflected the reality of war. Kudos to him for that. It's a redeeming factor.

And then, somewhere towards the final pages, I was somewhat won over. Without losing his voice of absurdity, the author had Yossarian, a key player, say lines so absurd that they rang true to the core. For example, "but we don't want what we want!" I could only shake my head and echo, "oh indeed." We don't. When faced with a bounty of temptations to sell out his soul, Yossarian rejected them all, and in his crazy way, spoke utter sanity. How often do we desperately want something for much of our lives, only to realize that we don't want it at all when the fantasy becomes a reality? A gold star for the author. Other episodes, such as Yossarian struggling to keep a fellow soldier alive even as his guts spill out, the sheer horror, despair, and helplessness of the situation, hit the mark. Bravo.

This, and Heller's commentaries on man being little more than meat, fodder for the brutalities of war, resound with such painful truth that today's reader can only look up at current events and current disasters and realize that we are still living in a world ruled by absurdities. History has taught us nothing.

And so, I could be convinced that Heller's novel is a classic. Perhaps it is.

This was my third attempt to read Catch 22. Usually, around page 100, I would put it down, always laughing up to that point. If I remember correctly, the lack of a central plotline made me pick up another book, and then another until I reached a point where I remembered nothing and had to start over. This time, around page 180, I thought again of putting it down, but the parallel reading of Delisle's comic book relaxed me enough that I eventually continued without really deciding.

The truth is that for the first 250 pages, I wasn't very excited, but at the same time, nothing particularly bothered me. I was slowly progressing. Finally, I read the last 300 pages within 24 hours because I couldn't put such a special book, such a good text that it seemed Heller had calculated every tiny detail, out of my hands. Of course, I'm not saying anything new, nor will I do so in the following. Now, neither Heller is saying something we don't already know, but nevertheless, we see the same things being repeated.

Catch 22 is somewhere between Pynchon and Vonnegut, without of course the idiosyncrasy (and chaos) of the first or the directness (and the unsurpassed humor) of the second. Heller presents a army of characters that represent every part of the social structure of the era (the priest who doubts God, the doctor who doesn't understand why he is in the war as a civilian scientist, the radio operator who builds the model of war profiteering, the ambitious officers who don't care about anything, etc.), who are of course one-dimensional to make the central hero, the unforgettable Yossarian and main protagonist, function as a counterweight to the absurdity he encounters, not only in the war but in life itself as we "find it".

All this is done with black humor but also a lot of blood, and when this starts, Heller is unstoppable. Even if the first half seems almost pointless, if the otherwise excellent finale becomes a bit didactic, have no further doubts. It is an excellent book.

"What a cold world!" he wondered how many people were still poor that night even in his own rich country, how many houses were hovels, how many men were drunk and how many women were mistreated and how many children were tyrannized, mistreated or abandoned [...] How many honest people were liars, how many brave people were cowards, how many faithful people were traitors, how many ethical people were corrupt, how many people in trusted positions had sold their conscience to scoundrels for fifteen cents, how many people had never had a conscience? [...] If you added all these together and then subtracted, you would probably be left only with the children and maybe with Albert Einstein and some old biologist or sculptor."

I’m once again engaged in the task of fulfilling my self-imposed challenge to reread classics that I haven't touched in decades. This time around, it's "Catch 22". I vividly recalled thoroughly enjoying this book when I read it during high school. However, now, I'm in a state of awe that my English teacher assigned this to a group of 17/18-year-old girls.

It's just as uproariously funny as I remember, but now I have a far deeper appreciation for the intricate wordplay and biting satire it contains. I have to admit that a great deal of it probably initially went over my head. This isn't merely dark; it's a form of black absurdist comedy that plays out like an unending loop of variations on "Who's on First".

Heller masterfully captures the sheer insanity of war. "Catch 22" has become an integral part of our lexicon. The inescapable web that the contradicting rules create is truly mind-boggling. For instance, if you keep flying missions, you're considered crazy. But if you request to stop flying, you're deemed sane enough to have to continue flying.

The pace of the story is frenetic. As I listened to it, I quickly realized that I had to pay attention every single second. Those who have only seen the movie or series have unfortunately missed out on the backstories of each character, which were some of the most hilarious aspects of the book.

Absolutely nothing is off-limits in this book. Heller fearlessly tackles bureaucracy, private enterprise, medicine, religion, and even optimism. And that's just within a single chapter.

The narrator, Jay Sanders, was simply perfect. I was astounded by his ability to赋予 each of the wide-ranging characters a distinct voice.

I truly have a certain admiration for you.

You are an intelligent individual with remarkable moral character who has taken an extremely courageous stance. I, on the other hand, am an intelligent person devoid of any moral character whatsoever, which places me in an ideal position to appreciate it. - Colonel Korn, Catch-22

I really cherish it when a book shows respect for the intelligence of its readers.

If a book is going to be "experimental" in any sense, I adore those that plunge you into a world without any explanations - a literary baptism by fire (such as Orwell's "Animal Farm"). Catch-22 is one of those books, and that's part of the reason why I found it so astonishing!

Catch-22 narrates the tale of a US Army squadron stationed in Italy during World War II, and a disillusioned pilot named Yossarian who believes everyone is out to kill him.

(Not an unreasonable assumption in a war.) However, it's not just an Italy, a military story, or a world that we are supposed to immediately recognize. There is a logic within the book that all the characters seem to accept, yet it doesn't make sense to the reader. Or, conversely, it makes too much sense to the reader, and that's when the book hits you forcefully. You start getting drawn into it. You start taking sides with people. Then all of a sudden, you realize that you're siding with the wrong people. You begin to think to yourself how could I be agreeing with this jerk?! How can I be laughing! My favorite books are those that evoke visceral reactions from me... my chest tightens, my stomach gets knotted, and I can't explain why I'm reacting positively or negatively - I just know that I am. There were so many such moments in this book that I can't even begin to describe them all...

One of the aspects that impressed me the most was the structure of the book - how it seemed both haphazard and entirely calculated at the same time.

How each segment could stand alone, yet together they wove an intricate and thought-provoking story...
If you have a penchant for historical novels, if you enjoy political novels, if you like in-depth characters, if you appreciate humor, if you like to engage in deep thinking - I would highly recommend this book to you.

It's not often I find myself saying this about a novel, but I'm truly going to miss these characters. Oh, and the women too, Nurse Duckett, Luciana, and even Nately's whore. Well, maybe not General Dreedle; his ill-tempered rants were entertaining, but the rest of them – and there are many – have been like a family to me over the past few weeks. A BIG family. Yossarian, Nately, Orr, Milo, Dunbar, Dobbs, Snowden, Aarfy, Havermeyer, Appleby, Hungry Joe, Kraft, McWatt, Kid Sampson, Huple, all were like brothers. And as for the uncles, let's just say there were quite a few! I can't recall the last time I read a book with so many characters. Even some of the minor ones felt significant to me. And speaking of significant, what about Major Major Major Major! Ha, classic! I swear I'll miss some of these names just as much as their personalities.

I'm not sure if the person who told me this had hit their head or something, but I was informed that this would read similar to Pynchon. No. It's nothing like reading Pynchon. Despite the non-sequential narrative, the mad eccentricity, the loony antics, and the multiple points of view, Catch-22 was a breeze compared to Pynchon. And I don't understand the readers who just didn't get it. It's satire. Not Captain Corelli's Mandolin. I'll admit, I wasn't so sure at first, but this novel really grew on me once I got used to Heller's style. It's undoubtedly comical. Really comical. But beneath the surface of the amusement, I found that Heller was seriously saying something outrageous and unforgivable about the stupidity of war and how the false values on which it is based truly mess up our entire way of life. The horror he exposed wasn't just on the bloody battlefield or in the never-ending bombing missions but permeated the entire complex web of establishment power. There's so much here that reminds us of all the things we take for granted in our world and shouldn't. Also, although set during World War II, I can fully understand why Heller's novel was so popular with the Vietnam generation.

Catch-22 isn't a story of one or two huge incidents but rather of countless memorable middle-sized and smaller ones. So many, in fact, that even now, not long after finishing it, I've probably already forgotten half of them. One that will never leave me, though, is that ending. It was great. I was smiling from ear to ear. I really was. It was the same feeling I had at the end of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest when Chief throws the sink through the window and runs off. Sure, there were times when I wished certain things had happened differently, but Catch-22 gave me so many enjoyable reading hours during what is for me the worst time of the year – made even worse by you know what – that it has to be a five-star read for me. I'm really starting to believe now that this is indeed a masterpiece.