Killer satire, hilarious but black humour, drunkenly uninhibited

books:


	• Catch-22: A Novel (Simon & Schuster Classics) Joseph Heller Simon & Schuster, 1999 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 823 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Killer satire, hilarious but black humour, drunkenly uninhibited

This didn't live up to my hopes re-reading it twenty years on from the first time - but that's not too surprising given how I relished it then. I suppose much of the pleasure was in how much it shocked and stung - something it's not going to do twice. It's hardly a book that needs any more discussion, so this is more just logging my response. Catch 22 was a wonderful foil to the stiff-upper lip jingoism of so much war literature and cinema, and Heller hilariously pilloried the dubious and at times absurd morality of the military. However this isn't just for laughs - we're not talking Hogan's Heroes farce or McHale's Navy peacetime shenanigans - the humour is as black as it comes. Just as you're wetting yourself laughing at something ridiculous part of you realises this is too close to reality, and the guys falling down dead aren't just cartoons.

This book just overflows with manic wit while managing to powerfully confront some big establishment issues. Unfortunately the next book I tracked down of Heller's, Something Happened, was just an embittered humourless mess. Somehow the same apparent lack of discipline enhances Catch 22.

A tricky thing these days, but may you come to this wonderful book without any prior knowledge or expectations.

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Sometimes it's special

Jay O. Sanders performance of this mind-boggling work is equally mind-blowing. He understands the book thoroughly and seems to channel the characters effortlessly. There's an honesty and shocked intensity that parallels the book's--all rendered with extreme confidence and cool. I love it and recommend it highly. One of the best reads ever.

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A must read for anyone in the military.

If the "Lance Corporal Underground" had a reading list, Catch-22 would be at the top. From the sociopathic commanders to the stupidity of the mission requirements increasing endlessly and unnecessarily, all of the hilarious absurdities cataloged in this novel are daily realities for anyone involved in the military. Well, they WOULD be hilarious if they were mere fiction.

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Not Free SF Reader

Stop changing the rules.

That is what the title refers to - that fact that you need to successfully complete a number of missions to get out of the war, but when you get close, the nasty people in charge keep upping the number.

This is a black comedy that follows our protagonist as he tries to get by while stuck in this ugly war situation with a bunch of crazy and going crazy fellow military, locals and other whacky people around the place.

Both funny and bleak at once.

Definitely worth reading.

MY FAVORITE BOOK -- EVER.

That about says it all. I had no idea what to expect when I picked up Heller's masterpiece and perhaps that was part of the wonderful-ness: it was a total surprise. After reading Catch-22, my outlook on life was completely thrown for a loop. No book has ever made me think and reevaluate as this one did. A perfect novel - it makes you laugh, it makes you feel sad, it makes you think and it stays with you. I am ever amazed at the intricacy with which the novel is structured and how the story unfolds. I re-read Catch-22 regularly.

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