fanw (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} fanw) wrote,@ 2004-08-08 16:02:00 |
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[Review] Catch 22 -- Joseph Heller
Although I finished this book a month ago I didn't write up my review because I didn't know what to say. This book is quite simply brilliant. That really sums it up. It is hilarious. It is satirical. It is moving. The characters are detailed and distinct and change over the course of the story. And it contains one of my new favorite quotes. Paraphrasing: "Live forever, or die trying!"
In following the history of Yossarian in the war you watch the patently absurd but utterly believable situations that result when certain attitudes are taken to their logical conclusion. The soldiers are simply caught in the midst of ambitious rivalries. Everyone from the general down to the lowest private has their motivations. And what seems perfectly believable, that so-and-so is blinded by ambition, that another is blinded by profit, that a third simply loves the thrill of a firefight, leads to a gradual escalation of absurdity until you are no longer rolling on the floor laughing but staring aghast at the page. The boundary between reality and the absurd is so blurred, it's difficult to tell where the book changes from funny to horrifying. I think the line is probably different for everyone.
And the way it's written -- Heller wanders, one story leading to another, the timelines intertwined and referenced in as easy a manner as someone would when talking at a bar. "You don't say? Remember that time...." Somehow all of these snippets of stories end up collecting so that by the end you understand all that has gone on.
As I said before, this book is just brilliant. I can't say anything more.
Although I finished this book a month ago I didn't write up my review because I didn't know what to say. This book is quite simply brilliant. That really sums it up. It is hilarious. It is satirical. It is moving. The characters are detailed and distinct and change over the course of the story. And it contains one of my new favorite quotes. Paraphrasing: "Live forever, or die trying!"
In following the history of Yossarian in the war you watch the patently absurd but utterly believable situations that result when certain attitudes are taken to their logical conclusion. The soldiers are simply caught in the midst of ambitious rivalries. Everyone from the general down to the lowest private has their motivations. And what seems perfectly believable, that so-and-so is blinded by ambition, that another is blinded by profit, that a third simply loves the thrill of a firefight, leads to a gradual escalation of absurdity until you are no longer rolling on the floor laughing but staring aghast at the page. The boundary between reality and the absurd is so blurred, it's difficult to tell where the book changes from funny to horrifying. I think the line is probably different for everyone.
And the way it's written -- Heller wanders, one story leading to another, the timelines intertwined and referenced in as easy a manner as someone would when talking at a bar. "You don't say? Remember that time...." Somehow all of these snippets of stories end up collecting so that by the end you understand all that has gone on.
As I said before, this book is just brilliant. I can't say anything more.
