Joseph Heller is hilarious. Catch 22 is terribly thin on plot and if you're like me it will take you a year to get through this book, but every second of it will be packed full of laughs. Heller put it best in response to a critic of his later work who stated that the author hadn't since written anything to come close to Catch-22, Heller's response of, "who has?," sums it up quite well. Catch-22 may not be the integral piece of literature many people claim it to be, but it sure is funny. ( )

At first I hated this book. It read like a series of cacophonic vignettes that were loosely connected, kept repeating, and made no sense. All the characters seemed to thrive off trolling each other, lying, and generally being corrupt. It was like a really bad version of M*A*S*H. It also felt like Gretchen Wieners trying to make "fetch" a thing, but in this case it was Joseph Heller making "Catch-22" a thing... and actually succeeding.

Then about halfway through the book it started to make sense. The repetitive vignettes started having more details. The characters became more relatable. The story was actually moving forward. I no longer hated it, but I did not enjoy it.

In the last quarter of the book, I was invested. The vignettes became core memories that, once recalled in completion explained so much of why the main characters were the way they were. I understood why the characters were so unlikable, and that made me appreciate them and like them... most of them.

I still can't say I enjoyed the book, but I can say that I appreciated it. Reading it ended up being like peeling back the layers of an onion made of memories. As you peel back the layers, you slowly understand why those layers existed - why those memories were hidden from plain view. Imaging someone trying to survive a war with those memories, it makes sense that layers would be built up as a survival mechanism.

The open ending made me feel similarly to the end of Handmaid's Tale: grim with only the slightest hint of hope. I like endings like that, leaving the reader to speculate and analyze. It's the kind of story with the kind of ending that makes you just want to sit with it for a spell after you've finished.

( )

Love. ( )

This book is a treasure trove of flagrant incompetence. The 1961 book: Catch 22 could be said to be an extended illustration of [b:The Peter Principle|890728|The Peter Principle|Laurence J. Peter|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347586680l/890728._SY75_.jpg|875969], which was published in 1969. It seems like everyone in the unit is incompetent. They each have misguided goals that seldom align with the organization goals. The book describes interactions between them, not the German enemy.

The first few chapters are people talking nonsense past each other, frequently there long conversations that are deliberate misunderstandings of simple communication. It seems as if everyone hates and fears everyone else in their unit.

After reading it for a while, I found myself falling into the same miscommunication patterns that they were using. That almost caused me to stop reading, but it is so highly rated by other people that I kept on in hopes that it would get better. It only got marginally better.

I struggled to give it a rating of 3 stars, but after reading more decided to give it 2 stars, which feels more appropriate for a book where nonsense, misunderstanding, belittlement, mayhem, and rage are the standard fare. Lies, including blatant lies are the order of the day. Consequences are rare, random, and often applied to the innocent with truth being totally irrelevant. Meanness to each other and misdeeds are followed by more misdeeds. This book only serves as an example of doing things wrong.

With military like this, it’s amazing that we won the war. But then, this purports to be a work of fiction. Doesn’t it? A review of [b:The True Story of Catch 22: The Reality that Inspired one of the Great Classics in American Literature|45486006|The True Story of Catch 22 The Reality that Inspired one of the Great Classics in American Literature|Patricia Chapman Meder|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1557174422l/45486006._SY75_.jpg|70264505] caused me to read Catch-22.

The front material and the after material caught my interest more than the book.

I am delighted that I did not purchase a copy of this book. ( )

"Did not like it" is awfully generous. Zero stars "I hated it" is more accurate.
This is a sexist, misogynistic waste of paper! ( )