Catch-22, by Joseph Heller

**sommerumarmung** · 04-29-2003, 11:59 PM

Hey guys, I am new to this forum. Anyway, Im am new to the book scene, as I am 17 and just starting to appreciate great literature. I live in Denver, Colorado, and I play drums and I'm a member of the Remo and Pearl drum forums.

Anyway, I just finished this book, and I am very interested on what the people on the board think of this book. Particularly the charecter 'Milo' - I think that, although a diffacult book, that it is generally about human greed and the pointlessness of life. Milo ties in directly with this, as he demonstrates this through selling eggs to himself to make a profit (weird), and buying parachutes off of soldiers to make money off of them.

What do you think?

**imthefoolonthehill** · 04-30-2003, 10:29 PM

I think that as soon as I am done with my huge report of 1984 and Brave New World (so far I have 8 pages... just starting

) ... I will have to re-read catch-22. I love the book, but have only read it once

**sommerumarmung** · 04-30-2003, 10:31 PM

I usually only read books once. Sure, you miss some things, but I would rather readt two books once than one book twice.

**imthefoolonthehill** · 04-30-2003, 10:46 PM

thats interesting... when I really like a book (1984, Brave New World, Dune, Tom Clancy) I usually read it twice... at least... It seems to me that any good book is worth reading twice :-)

by the way... happy birthday to Joseph Heller (May 1, 1923)

**sommerumarmung** · 05-02-2003, 12:46 AM

Is it really his birthday?

Didn't he die?

Anyway, Heller is an amazing writer. Most of the book Catch-22 is ludicrus, which is exactly the point. It is showing the pointlessness of life, and the pointlessness of human greed, and all humans are striving for is all for naught.

**imthefoolonthehill** · 05-31-2003, 03:41 PM

what was the name of the main character :-P

never mind... Yossarian:-) you can delete this if you want admin

**Robert E Lee** · 06-03-2003, 05:35 PM

Originally Posted by imthefoolonthehill

never mind... Yossarian:-) you can delete this if you want admin

Catch 22 is one of the worst books I've ever had to read

**imthefoolonthehill** · 06-03-2003, 09:06 PM

ah... I am glad you said that. Now ALL the people who respect your opinion (0) will be sure to avoid the book.

**Admin** · 06-03-2003, 10:06 PM

Be nice

**imthefoolonthehill** · 06-04-2003, 05:40 PM

*tries to be nice*

**Munro** · 06-05-2003, 04:43 AM

Lol.
If you hate so many books with so much aggressive passion, why do you bother to read at all, Robert E Lee? Every second message I read from you you're abusing a novel or author violently. Who do you consider a good writer, and what are some good books in your opinion? I'd be interested to know.
In fact, how many of the books that you criticise have you read? How much do you read on the whole?

**imthefoolonthehill** · 06-10-2003, 07:53 PM

*wonders why no one answered munro's question*

**Robert E Lee** · 06-11-2003, 11:36 PM

Originally Posted by Munro

Lol.
If you hate so many books with so much aggressive passion, why do you bother to read at all, Robert E Lee? Every second message I read from you you're abusing a novel or author violently. Who do you consider a good writer, and what are some good books in your opinion? I'd be interested to know.
In fact, how many of the books that you criticise have you read? How much do you read on the whole?

I read 1500 pages a month, more or less.

some good books I've read this year:
The Demons - Fyodor Dostoevsky
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (finished it last weekend)
Nostromo - Joseph Conrad
The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Portnoy's Complaint - Philip Roth

I criticize every book I read at least to some extend, but I dislike about one in three.

**imthefoolonthehill** · 06-12-2003, 03:10 AM

*posting for the sake of posting*

Interesting.... I wonder what other people's ratio of liked/disliked books are.

**angel52pd** · 10-14-2003, 04:26 AM

This novel proved to be a difficult read for me. I found that I had to keep chugging through it, even though I didn’t always feel that I had a clear idea of what was going on. It would be an interesting experiment to read the novel in a non-sequential way, meaning, read chapter 10 first, then skip to chapter 27. It is my thought that the novel would end up with the same message and clarity for the reader using this new approach as compared to the logical reading of text in order.

I think that the brilliance of the novel, lies in the way Heller manipulates the novel to reflect the process of thought. He uses the past, present, and future, constantly weaving them in and out of each other. The thought process can often times be like this – as we will for one minute think of one subject, and the next minute another.