Catch 22

evil-monkey

Read Catch 22 recently. D'you know, the last few chapters were a good read alright, and I particularly liked the ending, but I really felt that the first 400-or-so pages were just a drawn out build up to this. There were so many stages throughout the book where I was just really bored...any thoughts??

HalloweenJack

I thought it was a great book.

There's a lot in it but, if anything, I found the end harder to read than the other bits. It's hard to know what's going on at times the way the story jumps back and forth but once I'd finished it, I felt good about it.

Siome brilliant comedy moments in the book like the naming of Major Major or the fake trial.

BossArky

I remember forcing myself through many pages, then rolling around on the floor with laugher, then forcing myself through a few more pages until falling out a window laughing... etc.

One of my favourite bits (that I can remember) is

the guy who is a looser in the army, but mayor or something back in his own town

. I've met a good few of those people!

Shryke

This is probably my most read book of all time. I don't find any parts of it boring at all. There seems to be a love/hate divide among readers, I'm firmly in the love camp.

The sense of despair, loss, longing, the desperate need to live that runs through this book is indominatable. It's what makes it so great. It has a vitality about it that makes you want to live a little. The dialogue is brilliant and really defines the characters. With a relatively large cast of active characters I have never had a problem discerning who was who.

It also has possibly the most attractive female ever written in Luciana.

The ending is great also, if only for its rarity in this kind of fiction where Big Brother always seem to drag the story to a morbid conclusion. Rather than this the book ends with hope, humour and mirth.

Dades

Catch 22 and the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, though strange bedfellows, are the two funniest books I've ever read.

Eoin

I really like the book, though I did fine there are some parts where it drags a little. I think its reputation as one of the great modern American Novels can build it up too much for people though.

RonMexico

Loved the bit at the start where Yossarian is editing the letters.

evil-monkey

HalloweenJack wrote: »

Siome brilliant comedy moments in the book like the naming of Major Major or the fake trial.

ya I really enjoyed that bit myself. or whenever Mido was explaining the economics of his dealings across Europe...

BossArky wrote: »

I remember forcing myself through many pages, then rolling around on the floor with laugher, then forcing myself through a few more pages until falling out a window laughing... etc.

Yes I think this was the problem with it. Too many stretches where I just felt like it wasn't worth it. Perhaps it just should have been shorter, and by no means was it a particularly long book.

Dades wrote: »

Catch 22 and the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, though strange bedfellows, are the two funniest books I've ever read.

Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy was imho the greatest book ever written. Thoroughly enjoyed every page. Must get around to the next four one of these days.

Hermy

I loved Catch 22.
Has anyone read Closing Time by the same author?
It catches up with a lot of the same characters when they are much older.
It's a strange book which I failed to make head nor tail of.

marzic

i read this book in 1994, actually throughout 1994 and some of 1995! i remember reading it while in the queue for the bus in limerick stn, shaking with laughter and tears rolling down my face and people looking at me funny. it was a labour of love, i decided to read it after seeing the movie, which is a concise version of the book, but has a top class cast, and Alan Arkin plays yossarian like no one else could! my favourite bit of the book is where chief whitehalfoat describes being chased around the country by prospectors... epic.

antiselfdual

I guess I'd describe Catch-22 as meandering a lot, the plot is very very loose and there are a lot of odd tangents but it's an amazing amazing book...

I read Closing Time a few years ago, it's also pretty strange, and very different from Catch-22. I remember it being kind of depressing for some reason... I'd like to reread it because I don't think I really remember it well or appreciated it at the time...

evil-monkey

antiselfdual wrote: »

I guess I'd describe Catch-22 as meandering a lot, the plot is very very loose and there are a lot of odd tangents...

yup

Tar.Aldarion

Overrrrrated.