Catch-22 By Joseph Heller (Book Review)
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- čas přidán 5. 04. 2023
- Hello everyone and welcome to my new review and some pretty in your face, life lessons that Catch-22, this well known and famous book by Joseph Heller created for me. Reading this book brought back memories of the crazy situations in my own military and corporate life - a life where inane bureaucratic and hierarchical processes meant that we were never working as a team towards a goal together.
I have used some clips here from the IMDB site as there is a a recent series made of the book starring George Clooney. Site: www.imdb.com/title/tt5056196/
Over to you? What were your lessons from reading this book?
#reading #books #bookreviews #literature #booktube #lifelessons #lifelessonsthroughbooks #activatelearning #helenblunden #josephheller #catch22
at first i wasn’t sure but the more i read the more i began to love it, now it’s my favourite 😹
Wonderful! Thanks for watching. Happy reading.
I read this book years ago. It's satire, and alot of other things, but I thought it was outrageously hilarious, wild, tragic, and one of craziest stories I ever read. I don't think everyone who reads it will appreciate it.
I'd be inclined to think this too. I had my head scratching moments as well.
Serendipity experiences like you winning the lottery are wonderful! 🍀 Can’t say how many times I’ve picked up that book, but then chose another to read. Someday will be the right day and I’ll come back, finish the video, and share my thoughts. Thanks for putting this back on my radar. 🤓
Thanks Evangeline, yeah I’m not going to lie that I found the first 50 or so pages difficult but I stuck with it to have those revelations. Happy reading!
I am currently on the Chapter 6 of the book and I am gradually understanding the premise of the novel and the character formation and the tinge of satire it has. My mind has been skeptical and wanted to leave it in between by my heart says to still read and know what it has to offer. Wish me luck!
Thank you for this video as well… it helped me more. Keep doing the good work! Cheers!
Thank you so much for sharing this. I appreciate it. Hope you keep going. It took YEARS for me to finally read it. I’m glad I did.
Amazing review! Really helped me get my thoughts about the book together.
Thank you! Happy reading. 😊
I’m currently working on a book project about this book. I’ve been struggling to add some analysis for this book because of how absurd it is but your commentary and personal experience has helped me. Great video!
How wonderful! I’m so glad it helped. All the best on your book project 😊
Love it... struggled at first, but persevered.Yossarian is a true hero, as are you. If i weren't checking in on this every 3-4 chapters , i might of thrown the towell in...keep fighting the good fight for the printed word!
Thank YOU! Yeah it’s one of those books where everyone else sees something you don’t initially so when you persevere it all comes together. The penny drops. I’m certainly glad I read it too. Otherwise it would have been sitting on the shelf for years on end. 🤣
I read the book, soon after high school, still a teenager, before university. I think it made me very cynical in employment situations. Nobody likes a smart-alec one boss told me. Under the circumstances, how could be anything else?, I replied.
I am reading this book at the moment, what a ramble this book is.
They were my thoughts initially too until I just went with the flow and realised it was a timeline of sorts.
Great review! I came across this book doing research on how to escape my own catch-22 life situation. I'm 24, living in Belgium, and my mom has fibromyalgia. The legal implications tied to my income affecting her support create a similar paradox. If I work to build a better future, my mom loses crucial support, yet staying stagnant isn't a viable option either. Life sometimes feels like we're caught in our own personal catch-22, doesn't it? Your review made me reflect on the parallels between the book's themes and my own reality. If you have any thoughts on how to break free from a real-life catch-22, i'd love to hear them! Thanks for the insightful content
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and reflections about this. I'm so sorry to read about your mum and the predicament you face. Fibromyalgia is very painful and wouldn't want to wish it on anyone. I don't know how you can break free from a real life catch-22. I think there comes a time when you just accept what it is you need to do and why you need to do it and come to terms with it. However, yours involves the health of someone near and dear to you. Whatever you decide will be the right choice for you and your mother. Good luck and all the best in 2024.
'yours involves the health of someone near and dear to you', could not have said that in any better way! I hope so too but whatever happens, hakuna matata. Wish you the best and a good health in 2024 too!@@LifeLessonsFromBooks
Thank you for this review, let me add a few thoughts. 1) I read it when I was about twenty. While I probably couldn't fully grasp it back then, I believe that my (unconscious) distrust of authority helped me connect with the protagonist and his struggle. Trust in authority should never be given freely (although in a child-parent relationship you have no real choice). It has to be earned by actions first (which is the opposite of military training I guess). 2) Over the years fragments of this story kept resonating with me when contemplating current events. Your comparison to work in the corporate world reminds me of the essay about "bullshit jobs" and how this book might be an early version of that essay but in a different setting. 3) And about the role of female characters in the book (I don't remember the details, just reflecting on your commentary): Could this be a realistic portrayal (as opposed to misogynistic view) of what the main use of women during war was at the time this story takes place?
Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts. I agree with the idea of the bullshit jobs and think the Catch-22 was about this. Similarly, regarding the women in the book, I believe that may be the case too. I have not read any other books by Heller so can't comment if this was a reflection of how he wrote about women but methinks it was simply how they were portrayed at the time.
It was love at first sight. Actually, I wasn't hopelessly in love until the war on modifiers. At least I didn't think I was in love, but how can you tell? Now I've built my life around Capt. Orr. I spent 27 years flying their missions. I got out. I'll spend the rest of my life surrounded by Swedish Girl Scouts. That's how that's done.
Hello.
22 years young here, picked up this book with a pile of others during a kindle sale, it got put on the backburner for some odd reason.
I've circled back to it and can't help but to find it hilarious. My time in corporate america lets me instantly latch to every character, from the conniving and amoral Milo to the gloryhounding, uncertain Cathcart. The humor was a majorly unexpected attribute, along with the nonlinear storytelling. How anyone managed to get this book converted to a visual format is beyond me.
Wonderful thank you! Always interesting to read what others thought of this book. I can agree with your reflections of corporate life. This is EXACTLY like corporate life. I should know. Spent most of it in corporate….unfortunately. 🤣
When I was in the military in the early 80s I always hated the hurry and wait situations that happened all of the time, but it was no where near as bad as the modern day military - there is no way I would be in todays military, between the woke and cancel culture nonsense and the nonstop fighting foreign proxy wars - no thanks. Working for many decades in the military contract world is even crazier - I am close to retirement so just have to deal with it for a couple of more years - will not miss it.
I think we share a similar background with our working lives in the military…🤣
@@LifeLessonsFromBooks Probably. I was going to mention that I spent a year in Australia about 15 years ago, I spent 3 months in Tasmania, a couple of weeks in Melbourne, and then about 9 months just down from there in Camperdown.
Has anyone ever reconstructed this book in chronological order? I did a search for such online but couldn't find anything.
OMG. WHAT A GENIOUS IDEA! BRILLIANT!!!!
Wow, wonderfully timely. I'm about thirty pages from finish on Catch-22. Having recently finished Celine's Journey To The End Of The Night, I heard its influence in Heller's novel, and Kafka's there too. Thank you for your observations. It's a terrifically terrible book, Catch-22. The terror is in its madness, Heller wrote the hell out of it! I hated the stupidity of its characters' ill logic and its systemic nightmare-cartoonish misogyny.
Let me know what you think by the end of the book. I found the first pages hard going until I got used to the rhythm and the broken timeline. It's the generals and colonels that annoyed me the most.
@@LifeLessonsFromBooks I guess my comment sounded like a negative review but it was not. I've finished the book. I can't praise it highly enough. Milo: Moloch: mammon: money. What a sausage factory we've created.
@jungastein “Sausage factory” is an apt term for what we have created. 🤣
Is it for beginners
Sure I guess so. If you mean beginners to the English language, you may need to select an easier book however.
WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THE HUMOR?!?!?!
🤣 In all honesty, for me, yes it was funny but not so funny at the same time. It actually reminded me of some of the inane stuff we had to do in the military - and in different jobs too - tasks that were meaningless and nonsensical. Funny but not funny….
@@LifeLessonsFromBooks ugh, I hate when stupid people--like myself--talk in bad metaphors. The book is terrible because the comedy is so dry and dark that you don't care how clever it is.
That’s fair enough. I wouldn’t classify it as a rollicking hilarious comedy either… 😊
Just read it. Read banned books. Read 451, 1984, bnw...
Yep, read those you mentioned.
Re banned books: Some I haven’t (non Orwell) and we even have a couple here that I haven’t read (and unlikely to due to their violent nature even though they were considered as such. Eg Marquis de Sade, Clockwork Orange, American Psycho…..
@@LifeLessonsFromBooks read
@@LifeLessonsFromBooks you are mentioning violent books I didn't mention. 1984, 451, bnw, 22... start there