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3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I liked a lot about this book but could do without the volume of very 60s writing about women which would have the benefit of making it shorter and keeping all of the actually funny/interesting stuff
**
a brilliant, blistering, hysterically funny masterpiece. as satire, surrealist horror, bureaucratic parody and political allegory it surpasses the work of orwell and sits alongside the best of huxley and kafka. those penultimate chapters of darkness and despair are breathtaking.
in yossarian heller has created one of my favourite protagonists ever; not a fairytale hero and not an anti-hero either, a realistic, living-breathing-walk-off-the-page hero who is as heroes are in real life; accidental, reluctant, cowardly, selfish, begrudging, terrified, and yet choosing, mostly, to do the right thing in spite of their many flaws.
yossarian lives!
a brilliant, blistering, hysterically funny masterpiece. as satire, surrealist horror, bureaucratic parody and political allegory it surpasses the work of orwell and sits alongside the best of huxley and kafka. those penultimate chapters of darkness and despair are breathtaking.
in yossarian heller has created one of my favourite protagonists ever; not a fairytale hero and not an anti-hero either, a realistic, living-breathing-walk-off-the-page hero who is as heroes are in real life; accidental, reluctant, cowardly, selfish, begrudging, terrified, and yet choosing, mostly, to do the right thing in spite of their many flaws.
yossarian lives!
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Exhausting, but in a good way.
Like if “who’s on first” was expanded into a novel. Undoubtedly a classic, a comprehensive critique of war, capitalism, the nation, and humanity. Perhaps a bit overextended in making its points, was a bit of a chore to read at times.
I hadn’t read Catch-22 since the summer after my freshman year of college when I listened to an audiobook of it under the blazing New Mexico sun in a job site in Placitas.
What stunned me was what I’m calling the funnel or circular shape of the narrative, hitting iterations of key moments over and over, each time encoding then in more and more meaning.
Plus the novel has so many memorizable set pieces: Cleavenger’s trial, Major Major Major refusing meetings, Yossarian whistling in admiration for the Catch-22, Milo’s international commodities trading, etc etc
What stunned me was what I’m calling the funnel or circular shape of the narrative, hitting iterations of key moments over and over, each time encoding then in more and more meaning.
Plus the novel has so many memorizable set pieces: Cleavenger’s trial, Major Major Major refusing meetings, Yossarian whistling in admiration for the Catch-22, Milo’s international commodities trading, etc etc
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Good to read the classics. I can see how this was groundbreaking in the 50s, but is a rough read for lessons I’ve heard a thousand times over.
funny
slow-paced
Can’t come up with a rating. So confusing, grotesque, and distorted it’s hard to even wrap your brain around (see: written with insane humor). The only takeaway is its absurdity. The ending (last 40 pages or so) contains the only plot development of the book and is quite good.