Reviews with content warning for Gore - Catch-22

Ok imagine the speed and subject of the plot like this: completely straight and consistent line for about the first 85%, then a quick drop in tone and weirdly enough, style, then a crazy steep climb at the very end. It is incredibly crass, vulgar, violent, gory, confusing, and humorous in the way “Who’s on first“ would be humorous if the characters were depressed, lonely, terrified, and traumatized to a great extent.

I don’t know how I feel about it to be honest.

Content Warnings

beeping_librarian's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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olls's review against another edition

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dark funny reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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lilaceous's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

characters - ⭐️

plot - .5⭐️

engaging to read - ⭐️

would recommend - .5⭐️

would read again - ⭐️

first book to make me laugh-cry so major major major props for that.

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erebus53's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I knew that this was a story about war, but I really had n idea what sort of flavour it was going to have. The whole idea of Catch-22 as I understood it, is that a crazy person is not fit for military duty, but to claim that you are crazy, so as to get out of service, just proves that you are sane.

This is a dark and twisted comedy. The dialogues feel like a twisted conglomeration of Monty Python, Alice in Wonderland, and M* A* S* H* with a peppering of Dr Seuss, Billy Wilder, and Abbot and Costello. From the outset you feel sure that the protagonist is a little mentally unwell, and slightly paranoid, but you soon see that there is a lot of it going around, and that they are all crazy like foxes. I kept being reminded of that quote from the movie Pump up the Volume, "you're not screwed up.. you're an un-screwed up reaction to a screwed up situation".

I think this book is about equal parts gut-bustingly hilarious and unsettlingly horrific. Through satire and parody it jabs ceaselessly at the heroism of industry and Capitalism, corruption, the glory of war murder, the need to rescue women who are in charge of their own lives, the confusion of love and lust, confusion, certainty, certain confusions, and confusing certainty.

Parts of the story are clearly hyperbole. The absurdism is rife. I'm astounded that I haven't heard more of the punchlines of these jokes in my everyday life, but maybe I have and I was just not keyed into it. It's all incredibly convoluted. The story is told in anecdotes from the points of view of various people around the protagonist. There are recurrent gags, and retellings of parts of the plot from different people, and this all feeds into the feeling of being unsettlingly adrift, and carrying on through a haze of unreality peppered with déjà vu (or déjà vécu, or presque vu..) where you see things twice, or miss them altogether.

The entire army situation is painted as blustering generals vying for status, while underfunded and overworked conscripts are roped into unwinnable situations, glory projects cost lives, bureaucratic shuffling means everything is officially lost in translation, or redacted, or just lost, and side-hustlers make out like bandits. Every sensible supposition is questioned and turned on its head, even the useful ones.. and it's all incredibly frustrating. You have to laugh or you cry and that combat, high-tension gallows humour is all you are left with... that and the haunting echos of trauma.

This is probably well worth a reread, or I may leave it on as background noise if I want a certain sort of dark chuckle.

Content Warnings

pkgonzales7's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

Wow, this was quite the read. I do understand why it is a classic. There is a caustic humor to this, and so many lines made me laugh out loud. It is a damning commentary on war dressed up in the most ridiculous yet compelling story. It was hard to follow at first because it is not told chronologically. It took me about nine chapters before I felt I understood where Heller might be going with this, and there were some moments in the last fourth where I feel this really came together in a satisfying way. That being said, this book won’t be for everyone, but I think it was worth the read for me. The depictions of women, however, do not age well, so be wary of that if you decide to pick this one up.

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