Anyone ever read the book??

Just got finished reading it and trying to figure out what I think about it.

I will agree that it's brilliantly written. You have to have a ridiculous mind to write a novel like that. I can see writing a short story or a couple chapters, but to keep going on like that was nothing short of amazing.

But seeing as the book had no real plot (other than Yossarian trying to get out of the war), I found it a very easy book to put down. So it took me forever to read it. I just started reading another big book last night and I'm almost done with it. So I know that's not a measure of a good book at all...but I've never had such trouble reading a book. And not "trouble" in understanding...just trouble getting through it. And it wasn't boring...eh...I don't know.

Just a very interesting book and I'm wondering what anyone else who has read it has thought about it.

*and has anyone caught the movie?? It said it was made into a movie...and I can't imagine this book as a movie...except as like a three stooges type movie.

9/18/2008 1:53:44 PM

I love the book, read it a few times. It is also good as an audio book on long trips.

the movie, however, is bad. It has an impressive cast, but as you can imagine doesn't translate well to the big screen.

9/18/2008 2:00:34 PM

the movie's criminally underrated

9/18/2008 2:21:57 PM

loved the book like no other...one of my all-time favorites

9/18/2008 2:29:17 PM

I read this and thoroughly enjoyed it...

Quote :

"You have to have a ridiculous mind to write a novel like that. I can see writing a short story or a couple chapters, but to keep going on like that was nothing short of amazing. "

these were my thoughts exactly after I completed it. Also to it's credit; I laughed out loud multiple times..this book provided a great amount of entertainment while reading...at the end of the day that's all I can ask from any book.

[Edited on September 18, 2008 at 2:34 PM. Reason : .]

9/18/2008 2:34:23 PM

my freshman (high school) English teacher gave it to me to read...loved the book, hated the movie

9/18/2008 3:26:38 PM

I read it

Funny at times but overall, not my thing. I usually find 'classics' to be ridiculously long-winded and boring.

9/18/2008 3:36:12 PM

also read it in high school and it immediately became my favorite book. I was quoting Catch-22 back then like it was Monty Python....

read it once again since then, been wanting to read it again.
I tried one other Joseph Heller book ("As Good as Gold", or something like that?) and couldn't finish it....

Quote :

"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. "That's some catch, that Catch-22," Yossarian observed. "It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed."

classic....

9/18/2008 3:40:19 PM

read it? I've never even heard of it!





but yes, everyone has read that book.
and everyone loves it.

I tried to read another Joseph Heller book - Something Happened - and couldn't finish it. Just dreadfully boring. I got through 250 pages of absolutely nothing. It described the personalities of five or six people and had three or four conversations. And that was it.

9/18/2008 4:14:08 PM

Anybody read the sequel??

9/18/2008 4:22:34 PM

i finally laid my hands on it the other day. libraries have always never seemed to have it when i was thinking of reading it. i liked the first chapter - amusing.

9/18/2008 4:26:13 PM

LOVED this book.

made me lawl regularly.

9/18/2008 4:28:27 PM

I read it every couple of years. when my gf and I met we found we both had the same copy. aw

9/18/2008 6:22:17 PM

Quote :

"I tried one other Joseph Heller book ("As Good as Gold", or something like that?) and couldn't finish it...."

i started reading thomas pynchon's gravity's rainbow, and so far it reminds me of catch 22

[Edited on September 18, 2008 at 6:38 PM. Reason : ]

9/18/2008 6:38:40 PM

I haven't liked any other Heller books either

9/18/2008 10:31:57 PM

first, Pynchon is nothing like Heller.

second, read God Knows by Heller for some great LOLs

god I love Heller.

9/18/2008 11:14:27 PM

^^^ How? Just that there are military characters in it?

I'm not seeing the comparison at all.

9/18/2008 11:42:34 PM

Closing Time is the sequel. Anyone read that??

9/19/2008 3:22:53 AM

I've actually just restarted trying to read through the whole thing. A few months ago I got through about half of it.

It isn't that I don't like the book -- I do. But it's style of humor is very constant throughout, and I find myself being drained after a couple of chapters. I find it hilarious and brilliantly put together, but at some point it becomes tiresome for me to keep everything together in my head. There's a lot of characters with their own idiosyncracies, and, especially in the early part of the novel, it becomes difficult for me to keep them all straight. There's the guy who shoots mice and the guy who lives with Yossarian and whoever all else, all of whom have more or less equally silly names and descriptions, and eventually I'm staring at the page wondering, "OK, Orr, is he the one with the ridiculously good contacts that gets good shit for the officer's lounge or is he the one that shoots mice or is he the one that gets cool shit for Yossarian's tend and fuck it all, I need a drink." Which, I suppose, is ultimately a sentiment in keeping with the novel, but it makes for difficult reading.

It's pretty much the only novel I know of that I love and simultaneously can't stand to read. I suppose that in and of itself means it has enough complexity to be a well-written book.

Hopefully this time I can make it all the way through without being distracted by some other book. In the past my efforts at finishing Catch-22 have been hijacked by "A Legacy of Ashes" (history of the CIA) and "For Whom the Bell Tolls," which I understand is exceedingly popular but which I liked anyway and fuck you.

9/19/2008 4:27:38 AM

Quote :

"^^^ How? Just that there are military characters in it?"

i'd like to stress that i said "so far"...

to me, at least, the humor seems somewhat similar, in that off-beat kind of way. maybe i'll change my mind when i get farther into gravity's rainbow

9/19/2008 6:33:59 AM

Quote :

"Funny at times but overall, not my thing. I usually find 'classics' to be ridiculously long-winded and boring."

Listened to the audio book and generally agree with this.

9/19/2008 9:16:27 AM

Quote :

""OK, Orr, is he the one with the ridiculously good contacts that gets good shit for the officer's lounge or is he the one that shoots mice or is he the one that gets cool shit for Yossarian's tend and fuck it all, I need a drink.""

I thought the same thing...but as the book goes along, he keeps rehashing everything. So you might forget who Nately is...but then Heller will keep bringing up the fact that he's the one who's in love with a whore who has the kid sister.

Since it was a book that took me so long to read I kept forgetting who the characters were...but he always brings back their characteristics.

Again...anyone read the sequel?

9/19/2008 10:06:13 AM

I can't believe people are writing off Heller's other books...I love his whole catalogue. Something Happened is in a completely different style, but I still thought it was very engaging.

God Knows has to be my favorite of his, though.

9/19/2008 11:34:06 AM

Quote :

"i'd like to stress that i said "so far"... to me, at least, the humor seems somewhat similar, in that off-beat kind of way. maybe i'll change my mind when i get farther into gravity's rainbow"

How far is "so far"? I mean yeah, most of the Prentice and Slothrop stuff towards the beginning is funny in an absurdist Heller sense (Slothrop's entire plight with the rockets falling is by definition, absurd). But by halfway, GV is an entirely different novel. It's funny throughout, but it doesn't have that same detached repetition that Heller does.

9/19/2008 1:32:56 PM

^eh, i'm maybe 100 pages in (so not that far). i guess "absurdity" is as good a word as any to describe the common thread i've seen thus far

[Edited on September 19, 2008 at 3:39 PM. Reason : ]

9/19/2008 3:38:41 PM