Reviews - Catch 22 | The StoryGraph

5.83k reviews for:

Catch 22

Joseph Heller

3.87 AVERAGE

coramon24's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A masterpiece. Sardonic, ridiculous, hilarious, heart-wrenching, visceral (as in, viscera - blood and guts). At times, the descriptions of war horror is as arresting as All Quiet on the Western Front, and at other times the humour is very “who’s on first”. I don’t know how one person wrote this book? He’s incredible. It goes without saying, but classics are classics for a reason.

lisaspgs's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

steven6000000's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

lerless's review against another edition

5.0

I liked this book

nicetryjan's review against another edition

3.0

remember reading this....don't remember much tbh

lmore's review against another edition

5.0

I have always been intimidated by this book, one because my boyfriend is always bugging me to read it and two because a lot of readers I know have acclaimed so highly of this one. The first time I read this was during the pandemic (2020 or 2021?), I was at 10% I think, and I was already frustrated by the characters, the flow of the story, and everything else. The non-linearity of the narration almost pissed me off and so I decided to DNF it before, as it somehow made me to dread reading at that time.

I tried reading it again this year, and gave more it more time. Similar with cooking, marinated it more, and just let the flavors come out on its own. And it surely did! The absurdity of the characters, sense of humor of each repeated dialogues, and bizarreness of how real these things happen during the war gave me the clinging feeling to save them, save Yossarian from his misery. The frustrating feeling I had reading every page just represents the frustrating reality and absurdity of war, and even life itself.

And yea, I know and I chose to believe, Yossarian lived.