Book review: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

[avanta7]

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


So, here's the thing. I know this is supposed to be one of the seminal works of American literature, and blazingly funny to boot. And while I have no doubt Catch-22 will maintain its place in the canon regardless of anything I write, I found the whole thing quite tedious.

Perhaps that was Heller's point: that war is tedious, that war doesn't make sense, that the only way for a soldier to survive a war with sanity intact is to develop a sense of the absurd and act on it. But after 144 pages, I knew I didn't care enough about Yossarian or any other character to follow the absurdity for another 300 pages.

And so, here's another two-star rating simply because I didn't care. No reflection on writing quality. Just bored with content.



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Comments

[onyerbike.livejournal.com]

I've found the same thing with a few so-called classics. Slaughterhouse Five, for example - boring. But I wasted more of my time on it than I should have, and finished it, hoping all the way that it got better. Didn't.