Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

This is a difficult book to read. At least for me. It is meant to be humourous, but I struggled to finish it. It is a book I had heard a lot, and surely it has the privilege of being one of the very few novels I know whose title is now an expression we use in our daily life (at least myself, I find many catch 22 situations) Surely the book manages to ocnvey the absurdity of bureaucracy and also the struggle of the individual against it. I like to compare this book to Big Brother. It is surely a more optimistic book than Big Brother. In all honestly,I think the book is a bit over rated. I knwo other people who started it and ...  Read the complete review

... "This fish you dream about. Let's talk about that. It's always the same fish, isn't it?" "I don't know," Yossarian replied. "I have trouble recognizing fish." "What does the fish remind you of?" "Other fish." Read Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22” and have someone ask you what it reminds you of; your answer is likely to be: “nothing at all”. Because this is unique and can only remind you of how to laugh, if indeed you have forgotten! It might make you cry too! This one is really crazy! Nuts! Heller’s masterpiece is truly a magnificent ...  Read the complete review

____________________________________________________ Yossarian slumped with disappointment. 'Then I really have to fly the fifty missions, don't I?' he grieved. 'The fifty-five,' Doc Daneeka corrected him. 'What fifty-five?' 'The fifty-five missions the colonel now wants all of you to fly.' ____________________________________________________ Doo yoo want the good news or the bad news? Uh-oh, what's the bad news..? Word from on high is that we've got to doo more miles... Who says? Colonel Cathcart. He made an announcement over at operational command. ...  Read the complete review

If asked what the most influential book in modern literature is, I would have to answer Catch-22. It has had a huge impact on both the popular culture and literary circles. It introduced the post war world to the concept of 'Black Humour' and taught generations about the sheer absurdity of war. This book also gives us the first true 'anti-hero.' Yossarian is stuck in a world he cannot control, not wanting to die but unable to escape the war he is constantly looking out for himself and his own survival. He doesn't care about the consequences and is a self-certified coward, even prepared to go to the extraordinary length of sabotaging missions. Yet, we ...  Read the complete review

Catch 22 is easily one of my most favourite books of all time. It is a totally insane piece of work from the pen of Joseph Heller detailing the exploits of a squadron of pilots on the ficticious Italian island of Pianosa. The story focuses upon Yossarian, a pilot who spends most of his time trying to devise ways to escape from the war and never have to make another bombing run again, mainly by illustrating exactly how crazy he is. In fact, he and every single other member of the squadron we are introduced to in the novel are crazy in their own way, but despite this are unable to be grounded because of a military clause which lends the novel its title. You see, pilots, ...  Read the complete review