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AudibleInk - Catch-22
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List Price: $16.00
Our Price: $10.88
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Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
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FREE SHIPPING on Orders over $25!
Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780684833392
ISBN: 0684833395
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 464
Publication Date: 1996-09-04
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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Editorial Reviews:
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Catch-22 is like no other novel. It is one of the funniest books ever written, a keystone work in American literature, and even added a new term to the dictionary. At the heart of Catch-22 resides the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero endlessly inventive in his schemes to save his skin from the horrible chances of war. His efforts are perfectly understandable because as he furiously scrambles, thousands of people he hasn't even met are trying to kill him. His problem is Colonel Cathcart, who keeps raising the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempts to excuse himself from the perilous missions that he is committed to flying, he is trapped by the Great Loyalty Oath Crusade, the hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule from which the book takes its title: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes the necessary formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very act of making the request proves that he is sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved. Catch-22 is a microcosm of the twentieth-century world as it might look to some one dangerously sane -- a masterpiece of our time.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: 25 words or less
Comment: Even sloth and debauchery lose their power. Virtue and sanity are what's left over when you've tired of all vice.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Lighthearted and comical, yet dark and meaningful
Comment: First and foremost, Catch-22 is written in a circular fashion, often ignoring chronological order to aid in the atmosphere of apparent logical irrationality. Many a reader has been turned away by this lack of sensical ordering. However strive on, just as a CSI detective starts with only half the picture, as you travel through this book, all becomes clear.
There are two different appeals to reading Catch-22. The first is the lighthearted satire, mayhaps similar to what many of us have found in the comic strip "Beetle Bailey". In fact, you could open this book up randomly to any page and sample the hilarity without embroiling yourself in an immense and thought-provoking novel.
The other path is the hidden meaning which each and every one of the 50 odd characters portrays. The profound absurdity of war and the needs of the individual versus the needs of society are debated mercilessly. This book is not truly anti-war as the war itself often seems more of a backdrop to the main story, however Heller strives to emphasize the desires of the individual versus the greater payoff to society . The main character, Yossarian, desires the end of the WWII but not at the cost of his own life. The greater enemy of the novel is often not the Germans, but the bureaucracy of the American army or as Yossarian says, "The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on, and that includes Colonel Cathcart. And don't you forget that, because the longer you remember it, the longer you might live."
Customer Rating:
Summary: Incredible
Comment: I almost didn't include this book in my reading list - thank goodness I did in the end!
Although set during a war, the theme is about survival, insanity and humanity.
The language is disturbingly funny and can drive anyone crazy.
The story is not told chronologically, which makes it a slightly difficult read, but the book relies largely on its characters and the way that Heller sets it out presents better pictures of each character. At the beginning of the book we get the impression that everyone is crazy, Yossarian most of all. But as the story unfolds we realise that it's all just a hopeless attempt to survive the madness of their era, nobody is fool and least of all Yossarian.
I'm currently reading it for the third time - definitely one of my favourite books now. The story may be too entangled to understand at first, but the characters come vividly to life and stay with you.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Worth reading, but probably only once
Comment: By wrapping his story in the context of war, Heller amplifies our tendency to treat others as a means to an end and to interpret our surroundings as intentionally hostile to our own objectives.
Does Heller say more than this? Probably, after all, he introduces a lot of colorful characters, albeit most superficially. But it takes a lot of patience to wade through his oxymoronic prose and roundabout narrative style. At times I found this entertaining; at others I did not. It was probably during these latter instances where I missed the book's other messages on love, capitalism, war, sex, and everything else that others have gleaned from its pages. Admittedly, war is tragic, and sometimes life seems pointless and self-defeating, but as Major Danby explains near the end, sometimes we just have to focus on objectives larger than ourselves.
In short and in an attempt to imitate Heller's style, I would describe Catch-22 as a comical and tragic book that uplifts and depresses you. Its constant absurdity is transcended only by its momentary seriousness. Would I read it again? Parts of it, most definitely. The whole thing, probably not.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Characters Living With Death
Comment: The amazing CATCH-22 essentially has three overlapping narratives. One shows senior officers who are comically unsympathetic to the interests of their men. Some of these, such as Colonel Cathcart and General Peckem, are careerists who make decisions according to self-interest (or stupidity and self-interest). Others are incompetents, such as Major Major Major Major and General Sheiskopff, whose authority far surpasses their ability. To me, the careerist officers, while satirical, seemed as real as any modern bungling boss, working smugly in the corner office.
Milo Minderbinder, a genius trader and capitalist, is the dominant character in the second narrative. Technically, Milo is the mess officer at Pianosa, where Yossarian is based. But he has parlayed this job into a food supply syndicate and has become a major commercial player throughout the entire war zone. Milo is a profiteer and entrepreneur whose greed distorts, and sometimes overshadows, the war.
With Milo, Heller shows a world of surrealistic capitalism that thrives as the men in the bombers die. But for me, Milo didn't add much. His adventures make twisted sense. Yet they hit only one note and don't really ripen into something more profound. Milo is the least successful part of this superior and complex book.
The third narrative in CATCH-22 shows the men who fly in the bombers. Here, Heller's work is outstanding. There are men who can't shake the presence of death (Yossarian, Dunbar, Hungry Joe, and Dobbs). There are true believers who accept the mission and its risks (Clevinger and Havermeyer). There is a rich kid (Nately), a reckless hotdog (McWatt), and a doomed alcoholic (Chief White Halfoat). And there are the horrible fatalities (Snowden and Kid Sampson), whose deaths are gruesome and arbitrary.
Heller's work with these characters is absolutely first-rate. While they have cartoonish aspects, each is distinct and each has a surprisingly moving story. Heller also writes about their combat missions with you-are-there intensity. Finally, he connects the reader emotionally to the plight of these characters, especially in the final 150 pages, when the power and poignance of his narratives merge and really hit home. Then, you feel the consequences when you learn that, say, Milo has substituted aspirin for morphine in McWatt's plane on the tragic and high-risk mission to Avignon. "There there," murmurs Yossarian. "There there."
CATCH-22 is a long book. There is repetitiveness in its humor. Its iteration of events is occasionally maddening. But keep at it! CATCH 22 deserves its must-read reputation (although seventh place on the ML Best Novels list seems high). Regardless, this is a terrific novel.
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