# Catch-22



## Deagon777 (Jul 22, 2007)

I started this book last week and I already love it! Heller is hilarious.

It's unfortunate I've never actually heard the term this book added to the dictionary only once before I started reading it. Where? _Lost, _of course!

Anyway, does anyone have any thoughts on this book?


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## quarterscot (Jul 23, 2007)

Matt Groening, before creating _The Simpsons_, did a comic strip called _Work Is Hell_. One piece was called something like 'The Road To Manhood' - 'First Drink,' 'First Car Crash' etc. Under 'First Realisation That Everything You've Been Taught Is A Lie' he showed an adolescent reading _Catch-22_. That sums up the book for me. If you didn't read and repeatedly re-read it as a cynical, depressed teenager, you only had half a childhood.


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## ClancyBoy (Jul 26, 2007)

quarterscot said:


> Matt Groening, before creating _The Simpsons_, did a comic strip called _Work Is Hell_. One piece was called something like 'The Road To Manhood' - 'First Drink,' 'First Car Crash' etc. Under 'First Realisation That Everything You've Been Taught Is A Lie' he showed an adolescent reading _Catch-22_. That sums up the book for me. If you didn't read and repeatedly re-read it as a cynical, depressed teenager, you only had half a childhood.



The comic is called Life in Hell.  Work is Hell, Love is Hell, etc etc are compilations.

Also I couldn't finish Catch-22 because suddenly I got flies in my eyes.


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## Siglark (Jul 27, 2007)

ClancyBoy said:


> Also I couldn't finish Catch-22 because suddenly I got flies in my eyes.



That must have been a feather in your cap...
or was it a black eye?


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## ClancyBoy (Jul 27, 2007)

Siglark said:


> That must have been a feather in your cap...
> or was it a black eye?



Crabapples in my cheeks, actually.


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## quarterscot (Jul 27, 2007)

ClancyBoy said:


> Also I couldn't finish Catch-22 because suddenly I got flies in my eyes.


 
To be pedantic in turn: How did you know you had flies in your eyes? Surely if you have flies in your eyes you can't see them, because of the flies in your eyes.


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## ClancyBoy (Jul 28, 2007)

quarterscot said:


> To be pedantic in turn: How did you know you had flies in your eyes? Surely if you have flies in your eyes you can't see them, because of the flies in your eyes.



That's just it!  How can I see I got flies in my eyes when I got flies in my eyes?


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## For me with Squalor (Jan 21, 2008)

Its not for everyone, but I really enjoyed it. It doesn't stay funny all the way, but its abstractness is refreshing, for a lot of people this kind of out of the box thinking is too strenuous and painful. I love Milo Minderbinder his character is incredible. 
He's another one of the misunderstood authors with some genius in him!


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## UnderToad (Feb 8, 2008)

How refreshing that someone thinks it's not funny all the way thru.  It's not meant to be comedic.


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## plaindealingvillain (Feb 8, 2008)

probably my favourite book out of all those i've read so far. Heller's style of cynicism is also key to many other writers and comedians, for example Woody Allen, Philip Roth, Larry David and Saul Bellow. I love love love this style of comedy, which can probably be classified as "jewish-american", although many of the above people don't like to associate themselves with said genre. 

a brilliant brilliant book. i completely agree with "cynical teenager" comment.


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## cowpops (Feb 10, 2008)

quarterscot said:


> To be pedantic in turn: How did you know you had flies in your eyes? Surely if you have flies in your eyes you can't see them, because of the flies in your eyes.


 

<3


I loved this book.  I read it a couple months ago.  It's hilarious, sad, and it makes you think.

That's the best combo ever.


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## Peejaydee (Feb 12, 2008)

I thought I'd quickly help balance the debate. Catch 22 was one of the most disappointing novels I've ever read. I still can't quite pin down why. It took me 3 attempts and no small amount of determination to drive myself through it.

I think it just bored me rigid in the end. Possibly it was how much I'd heard about it being a classic and hilarious and all the other descriptions out there. I expected to be enthralled by it from the first page. Imagine how gutted I was when I was over a third of the way through it and it was still sh1t. I think I also didn't get why people wouldn't be as cynical as Heller and Yossarian are/were - being a confirmed cynic myself.

I've kept it and will try again when the bad memories fade.


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## paradice_creature (Feb 26, 2008)

hahah
this is one of the funniest books ever written. its classic. & best enjoyed when the pages are browning and tearing on a boring sunday. 

my fave part is the chefs that go in search of the ingrediants. i love that idea. 
& the editing of the other peoples letters is just too funny. 

I love it when people dont like this book. im not going to say why. i just do 

have you read god knows! yet?  i have it at home somewhere but iv still not got around to reading it.


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## alanmt (Feb 26, 2008)

I love this book as well - so much brilliance!

"The Eternal City" has got to be one of my favorite chapters of any book I have ever read.


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## Soccah (Feb 26, 2008)

He knew everything about literature except how to enjoy it.


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