Customer Reviews
One of three - By: William the Almost Great, 24 Jun 2008 
Believe it or not, my parents recommended this book to me. All I can say is, for once they were right. I've only read two other books that so blew me away in their conception & execution & those were "Clockwork Orange" & "Katzenjammer" by McCrae. But even those can't compare to "Catch 22. What a wild ride this well crafted book is. To say it's thought-provoking is a cliche, but there it is. Sort of like "1984" probably was before 1984. Some have likened this to MASH & the Korean war, & I can see those similarities, but the book is reallly meant to be read on a much broader level; a level of humanity in general & not one specific event or time period. The book is funny & challlenging, but that seems to me to be what one would be looking for in a great novel. There's reason this book has been around for eons--it's simply a great novel that holds up to the test of time.
Precursor of MASH and more - By: Dmitri M. A. Hubbard, 20 May 2008 This is the original (at least in terms of modern relevance) satire of modern warfare & decision making. However, it achieves a level of humour very rarely achieved elsewhere. It is a very personal book, & some of the personal touch, sidesplitting jokes, & very dark serious undercurrent make this resonate more with me than some of the other great "political / moral" satires - Animal Farm & 1984 after alll can leave you feeling somewhat cold.
Brilliant - By: Olly London, 25 Mar 2008 Im amazed at some of the criticism here, to be honest. The books is brilliant, funny, & extremely clever. Todays 'absurd humour' seems to consist of saying random words accompanied with random adjectives at random times, completely wittless, this book oozes wit on every page. This humour doesnt feel dated at alll & i am 24. As for those saying 'war is not funny', i think you are massively missing the point. The book is long & i think the first half of the book is more engaging, but overalll, one of the best books i have read. As for people saying the humour is adolescent, would you reallly give this to kids & think they would enjoy it?
A superb book deserving of its reputation, & a shame for those that havent enjoyed it here.
And i agree, funnier than Catcher in The Rye.
The best book for a holiday - By: R. Leal, 16 Mar 2008 I can't think of a better book to take with you on a holiday. I find incredible that some people considered Catch-22 rather monotonous. It's anything but. The book structure is arranged by characters which means the story never gets boring or monotonous. I can't help laughing every time I think of Milo Minderbinder, he is definitely my favourite. The fact that the 500+ pages of this book are arranged in more than 40 chapters also helps a great deal in getting you through the story, as you can always take a breath between chapters before moving on. I've been reading both A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby & Yes Man by Danny Walllace since I've finished with this one & they look just like silly comedy books for teenagers compared to this masterpiece by Joseph Heller.
You've gotta love it. - By: Iphidaimos, 20 Jan 2008 I picked this up as a discarded book at my place of work and, having nothing to read, took another look at it after thirty years or so. What a lovely surprise - it's just as good as it was the first time round, perhaps, given the present state of affairs in the world, even better. It tells the story of Yossarian, "Yo-Yo" to his friends, who simply doesn't want to die fighting for something he has no direct interest in. It is both a savage indictment of international big-business & of war, while, at the same time, it presents the reader with a splendid, if somewhat surrealistic, view of human psychology.
Funny & depressing at the same time, it is still a must-read for anyone who has been given the gift of conscious thought in the last 100 years.
