Submitted by Icy-Advertising-6699 t3_yh88kq in books
Hello!
I'm currently reading Catch 22 and I can not stand the book. But if there are any people reading this who enjoyed the book and remembers why, I would love to read about it. This is not me trying to start an argument about the book. I am really curious and would love to know why other people like it. Thank you in advance!
There there
Its got really good humour, it shows how insane most wars are
If it aint clicking with you though i would stop reading. It has the same tone throughout
That being said, I enjoyed it most when I was an 18-22 year old guy, and I think you have to have that attitude to really appreciate it. You need that anti-authoritarian streak and a desire to read stuff that has a cynical edge to it, while also being old enough to appreciate the existential issues at its core. I haven't been able to finish a re-read of it as I've gotten older - I've lost the appetite for how obsessed with mortality it is. I also think it helps if you've read a lot, I appreciated how different it was from other books.
Your points really makes me want to pick the book up again. So thank you so much for that!
I did pick it up again. I think I’ve read it 3 times at 3 different life stages. The 3rd reading was even more enjoyable than the young man reading.
in what way can't you stand the book? what is it about it you don't like?
I did enjoy the first few pages, I was surprised by the comedy and actually laughed out loud to myself. What I can't stand is the repetitive nature of the chapters and that it's getting tidious reading what feels like the same thing over and over. There are certain parts I really like but find it difficult to keep reading because of boredom. However, reading these comments really makes me want to keep reading and to enjoy things I clearly don't see or have missed. :)
Yossarian is fixated on a certain event, so the story circles around that event until finally it gets revealed. It's a psychic wound that he keeps poking at, until finally he comes to grip with it. Then we see things that seem like throwaway jokes (like "Nately's Whore" or "Mais où sont les neigdens d’anten?") are core to the theme of the book.
The chapter where we get the full details of the event, "The Eternal City", is probably one of the most powerful chapters I've ever read in any book.
Yeah, you’ve already picked up on it but u/naturalnumbers second point explains that cycling thing. There’s a point somewhere around 2/3 in where you suddenly realise why everything keeps cycling around certain events and it all just hits you in one go. One of my absolute favourites, this book.
It made me laugh till I cried and it also made me cry.
I loved it because it was a unique take on "war is hell." It's not just awful, it's also stupid and funny and absolutely absurd that the way civilized countries solve problems is by throwing human lives into the meat grinder of war. Catch-22 is the absurdity of life and of war in all of us aspects, from Major Major Major Major's name and rank up to how Mindbender behaves.
So this used to be my favourite book (as a teenager) and I ended up doing my uni dissertation on it, and would lend it and recommend it to people all the time.
I have never had a book with a higher rejection rate. People just didn't get it.
When I dug into why, it was always the repetition and structure that they didn't get, which often resulted in non completion.
The challenge with catch-22 though is that the repetition is intentional and the circular nature of the story is part of its genius, and it all makes total sense why by the end.
So I would argue that it's one worth persevering with, at least because if you make it to the end it will all become clear why the book is the way it is, and then you can make a value judgment on it. It's one where non-completion is really kind of unfair in terms of being able to say whether you like it or not, in a way that's really unusual for a classic book.
And because we all have a share.
It’s a clever look at the absurdity of 20th century war. Made me start to look at the world a bit differently, and I liked the writing style.
Just let it wash over you. The end brings it all together.
It took me 3 goes to get to the end for the first time. When I did, I literally turned back to the first page & started reading it again.
Still one of my favourite books.
It's both hilarious and horrifying. If you don't find the humour funny though, then you are likely to find it hardgoing, all you are left with is cognitive dissonance, bureaucracy and incompetence.
Joseph Heller cultivated a brash persona, he got some real character assassination pieces written about him like Lynne Barber's though she did credit him with some good lines
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>When people tell him he has never written another novel as good as Catch-22, he replies, jovially, 'Who has?'
I did find it funny the first few pages. But feel like it's pretty much the same thing in every chapter. But I haven't read very far. Will be reading it again because of all the comments. Thank you so much for your response!
The relentless wisecracking IMO is best thought of as a combination of self-defence in an insane situation (that gets progressively more insane) and as a sort of dissociation. There is an element of humanity in it "I laugh that I do not weep" and also a philosophical sense that a sense of humour is the final sense of proportion that can remain to us, to maintain our sense of order in a world filled with chaos.
There is a very unfunny central narrative involving Yossarian's attempts to get out of the Air Force and a crucial PTSD incident that his brain keeps revolving around, that is only gradually revealed, and hence hangs around forever, as the cause of his irrational behaviour.
Paradoxically, it's morally a very serious novel. It's very anti-war, even anti-patriotic. There is a scene in which Yossarian is raging against the witless moralistic patriotism of one of his co-officers who is talking about "the enemy" and Yossarian tells him that the US generals are the enemy, that "the enemy is anyone who is trying to get you killed". It was quite a bleak view of human nature, but it was also humane.
I think it's useful to remember that although it is set in WW2, the ethos it is describing is one informed by events from 1953 when he started writing it, to 1961 when he got it published.
It isn't really about fighting the Nazis, it's about a cult of inhumane behaviour justified by the idea of protecting the nation from Evil; it's about McCarthyism, it's about pointless battles for personal prestige and enrichment being fought by mediocre little men. It's about disillusionment.
I felt the same way the first time I tried to read it. Stopped after about 80 pages. Then I picked it up again a couple of years later and loved it.
I'm about 3/4 through and I'm finding it to be a bit repetitive and shticky. It's clever and funny, but I can only read a chapter or two before I need a break.
That's my problem too. It's funny, but feels like the same thing on repeat.
The repetition is the core of the story. It’s like bombing runs that get closer and closer to the target.
Like Ravel's Bolero that Torvill and Dean ice danced to.
One of the few books that had me laughing. Certain passages are just hilarious, like the one where they introduce Major Major Major.
At its best it’s like remembering a hilarious story about a lost loved one, and laughing, because if you don’t, you’ll cry.
I remember it took me a while to get into. It's abit slow to start but once you get about half way, it picks up. It's worth keeping on!
I don’t remember specific details I just remember laughing my ass off a lot while reading it, it’s been a while
Yeah, I found it to be a bit of a slog as well. Could be half the length.
I found it to be a clever satire but also relatable--I've never been in the military but have worked in large organizations that involved a fair amount of bureaucracy.
I sort of feel like you put yourself in Yossarian’s shoes, and he can’t get out and neither can you.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooh……
Perhaps my favourite book of all time. Maybe it's a book you need to read at the right time in your life and then you need to be in the mood for something funny.
It’s like a 1000 piece puzzle, but there’s no way of knowing what it looks like until you put the final piece in. You get the border, so you have a frame, sort of understand what’s going on. Then you put together three or four different sections that all look exactly the same but are on different ends of the picture. And they’re hilarious but sad but also hilarious. You figure all those out, and then you’re onto the next section, but now it’s kind of circling the middle, seemingly all by itself, unrelated, but you just know; it even sort of references the other sections you’ve done, but doesn’t really tell you how, and right in the center of it is a huge blank. It goes this way until you are down to the last fifty pieces, and not only do they go together easily because they make a lot of sense, but now everything else makes a lot of sense. You throw the final piece in, and you finally know the secret; there’s nothing left to do but sit back and look at it, but the only thing you can think of to to say or think or feel is “fuck.”
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I'm in the same boat as you, unfortunately. The book is very based on post war culture, and the further removed we are from that era, the leas accessable C22 becomes. It does get better as it goes on in my opinion, but yeah I wish I loved it but just couldn't.
Jake_Titicaca t1_iuchyss wrote
For one, it’s absolutely hilarious. For two, it’s absolutely heart wrenching