Catch 22

[Rduke55]

Catch-22 is in my top 10 books.
Different strokes...

[disjunction]

I read it years and years ago, I remember liking it. The only two things I remember now are the main theme, the ending, and Major Major Major Major.

[MaxPower]

I also didn't like Catch 22 that much. It just seemed to me that Heller was less interested in telling a story than in demonstrating how clever he was.

However, I think if I had read this book when it first came out rather than years later, I would have been much more impressed with it. I can understand why it is considered such a great work, but it just wasn't for me.

I liked the movie more than the book.

I don't see the parallel to Douglas Adams at all. His books are in an entirely differently league. They are entertaining and clever stories, but I don't think they aspire to be great literature.

[kidcolin]

OK let's just drop the Douglas Adams thing. Like I said, it wasn't a comparison of the authors or their places in literature lore. Just an observation of two books that everyone loves/thinks are hilarious that I never got into.

Your point about the story vs. being clever thing was a problem I remember having.

[Paluka]

[ QUOTE ]
I also didn't like Catch 22 that much. It just seemed to me that Heller was less interested in telling a story than in demonstrating how clever he was.


[/ QUOTE ]

The fact that he doens't focus on storytelling is a positive for me. It is easy to find works of fiction that tell interesting stories (Dan Brown, John Grisham, etc... are fine storytellers). Books that do something more than relate to you the events of an interesting plot are the hard ones to find.

[Triumph36]

The movie I only saw once but that book could never translate to a good film.

The connection to Hitchhiker's Guide is an insult - Catch-22 is at heart a very serious novel about the absurdity of the military. The way the story is told only goes to highlight just how disconnected Heller's world is.

[jnalpak]

I ran 25pgs in and gave up too.

[John Cole]

Satire is rarely laugh out loud funny, nor is black comedy, and it doesn't usually rely on jokes. But, how's this: "General Dreedle thought shooting skeet was good for the men. It taught them how to shoot skeet." (Or at least that's my approximation of the lines from thirty-five years ago.)

[kidcolin]

[ QUOTE ]

The connection to Hitchhiker's Guide is an insult - Catch-22 is at heart a very serious novel about the absurdity of the military. The way the story is told only goes to highlight just how disconnected Heller's world is.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for reading the whole thread.

[GambleGamble]

How the heck did catch 22 come about as a phrase anyways