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hennershenners 's review for:
Catch-22
by Joseph Heller
I thought that the middle-aged me would scoff at the books that the teenage me loved. Although some of the descriptions were a little overwrought, the dialogue zings. An amazing book. Maybe still a bloke’s book, but an amazing book. And yes it has its flaws - the treatment of women, LGBTQ and Black characters is ropey/dated/unforgivable (delete as applicable)
Heller spends 2/3rds introducing characters and then the final 3rd killing them off.
But despite its flaws this book is so fresh and modern - the total disregard for narrative structure or conventional timeline. Weirdly this reminded me of Kate Atkinson – the way she also lets you know a character is dead or dying before we meet them properly (Snowdon dying out back) like in God in Ruins how a phrase is repeated over and over – and then you find out it’s a dying colleagues last words; haunting our protagonist. And even though you know they are dead (and this is the clever bit) their death; when it finally happens ‘in real time’ shocks and disgusts.
Audio - Narrated by Trevor White - who made Yossarian sound like Marty Mcfly!
first read in 1989
Heller spends 2/3rds introducing characters and then the final 3rd killing them off.
But despite its flaws this book is so fresh and modern - the total disregard for narrative structure or conventional timeline. Weirdly this reminded me of Kate Atkinson – the way she also lets you know a character is dead or dying before we meet them properly (Snowdon dying out back) like in God in Ruins how a phrase is repeated over and over – and then you find out it’s a dying colleagues last words; haunting our protagonist. And even though you know they are dead (and this is the clever bit) their death; when it finally happens ‘in real time’ shocks and disgusts.
Audio - Narrated by Trevor White - who made Yossarian sound like Marty Mcfly!
first read in 1989