Goodreads: Catch-22

Catch-22
Joseph Heller

I'm not sure why this book seems to garner such profound adoration or abject hatred. The majority of the reviews on here either praise it to the hilt or look to denounce it as garbage. Most of the negative reviews seem to be written by people who didn't finish the book claiming they couldn't finish the book. The thing is though that you'd have to be crazy not to finish this book once you started this book. Those people claiming that it was something that they didn't or couldn't finish the book are either crazy or lying. Obviously you can't trust a madman or a liar so we can throw their opinions our the window like the poor, defenestrated Michaela. The other side of the coin is those who seem to be overly effusive in their praise of the book. I'm pretty sure most of them are just trying to sound smart and impress all their followers on Goodreads. (I prefer to impress my followers on instagram).

There's a lot of similarities between Heller and Vonnegut. The major difference is that Vonnegut usually gets to the punchline a bit quicker and Heller has to circle back again and hits the targe on the second run. Both end up with the results they're after but Heller leaves himself exposed a little bit to some calamity. I enjoyed Catch-22. I'm convinced though that it is a bit longer than he originally intended because as he was writing it he forgot where he was from time to time and just started telling the story again from the place he thought he left off. The book could have been a bit shorter, but it worked well the way it was written and realistically, who am I to critique it? It reminds me of a part in a funny movie where the joke goes on long enough for you to stop laughing and to begin again.

The moaning scene during the briefing has to be one of the funniest bits I've ever read in a book. I had to pause for a moment to get through that part. I was crying I was laughing so hard. Heller took a risk in writing the book the way he did. But his aim was true and he nailed what he was going after. I'm looking forward to the sequel.