A review by julis
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

challenging dark funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 My great-grandpa died in 2019 at the age of 102. During WWII he served as ground crew in the Army Air Corps in England. Towards the end of reading this book I asked his son, my grandpa, if he’d ever read it and what he thought.

It turns out that he had read it: My grandpa gave it to him (inspired by the same train of thought as me), and then was slightly perturbed to see him reading it completely stone-faced.

'Catch-22 is full of irony and black humor basically from page 1–it’s a little unsettling to think of someone reading it and not doing the awkward laugh and then catch yourself because that character just died horribly.

But my great grandpa finished it, so my grandpa asked him what he thought, dissembling a little, leaving room for disagreement–authors always exaggerate, you see, was it really like that?

“No,” my great grandpa said, after a moment. “It was worse.”