Indian Readers discussion

Dear friends,
We are starting with this classic parody of World War II this month.
A satirical look at the world of warfare and generals, this is lauded as one of the best war books ever, as well as one of the most daunting books ever.
I have tried reading this twice, and miserably failed.
But I believe in third time lucky, and will pursue Yohannan with zeal.

BLURB

Written in 1961 by Joseph Heller, loosely based on his personal WWII experience,
At the heart of Catch-22 resides the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero endlessly inventive in his schemes to save his skin from the horrible chances of war.

His problem is Colonel Cathcart, who keeps raising the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempts to excuse himself from the perilous missions that he's committed to flying, he's trapped by the Great Loyalty Oath Crusade, the bureaucratic rule from which the book takes its title: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes the necessary formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very act of making the request proves that he's sane and therefore, ineligible to be relieved.

Starting today!!!

I will be joining soon!! Catch 22 has spent the longest time on my tbr shelf. I've owned a paperback since ages, but have postponed reading it. Hopefully, I will be able to complete it this month.

I hope I'll finish this one this time around.

I will be joining too. Read it a long time ago. Would like to read it again.

I have read this last year and as its classic it turned out way diificult to complete.

I had tried this once. Couldn't go past 12 pages. I admire the efforts of those who are trying to read it again.

One of my favourite books, love the fact that it's the BOTM!!!

Started yesterday night. Completed chapter 1 - the Texan. Hopefully that this time round I will complete it.

Five chapters into the book & you sense someone forgot to add the world "Cult" before Classic when describing this book. 😁

hey will the book discussion be on a specific day or something.

P.S: i am new to this group and it is my first time joining something like this so please do help me out.

hi Sanskruti, we never have a well fledged book discussion. Actually, the person who proposed the book is supposed to discuss it by reading it first and asking questions and enabling interest in others. So far, this has never happened. Initially I used to read and try to discuss, but it is time consuming and impossible to do on a monthly basis. So this thread has deteriorated into random comments.
If you are interested, please take up the discussion. .. it will be exciting. :)

Otherwise... whenever you come across something interesting to do with the book/ within the book you can mention it here.. and others will respond, or vice versa.

Slow going for me. Still on page 30.

I'm halfway through this anti-hero-cult-classic & it doesn't get better or anything but it's a crazy ride so far.

Didn't read at all today. How much progress have you guys made so far? Your thoughts on the book so far?

I'm in page 140. Honestly, I'm trudging through. How is it going for you?

I finished the book this Sunday. Undoubtedly, it was not an easy read. The narration is puzzling. Almost all the characters exhibit the same level of insanity, which makes it more difficult to keep track of who is who. How bad I wanted to put this book down at times. How bad I had imagined rating it 1 star. But the last 10 pages seemingly makes up for all the struggle one endures to finish it. I think I'll re-read it at some point of time.

One question:
Why the opening lines of the book are:
"IT WAS LOVE at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him."

Does it mean Yossarian is gay? Cause in rest of the book, there is no romanticism described between Yossarian and Chaplain. Instead he was in relationship with Nurse Duckett.

@Bishwaraj, I don't think Yossarian is gay. Heller said in an interview that he found a way to start writing Catch-22 when he heard in his head a version of the first lines: "It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him."

@Niveditha, I'm on chapter 25. There is no sense of timeline to this book which is actually working just fine for me.

At 10% am giving it up. This book doesn't suit me and I get disconsolate reading it. :/

@Shalini T S Elliot. 😂

he he...
But few good friends are urging me not to give up
I may very well be the modern time King Bruce with this book. ^.^

I have completed a little more than half of the book. Not my type of book either. Only my stubbornness to finish reading all books that I start has kept me going.

Niveditha wrote: "I have completed a little more than half of the book. Not my type of book either. Only my stubbornness to finish reading all books that I start has kept me going."

All the best
Cheering you on :)

50 pages left. possible 1 star scathing review coming up!

ha ha ha.... waiting for it.

@Niveditha, I'll bet you'll love the sequel. It's called Closing Time. 👌

@ Avinash I won't be touching that ever!! haha

Done reading Catch-22, again! Yossarian lives!!!!

I am on page 90. Packed with satirical punches. But so far I saw no story in it. Just name-calling every character, But I remember one time, the book was a craze.

A question for those who have read it already: Do you think it's a good idea to read it along The Handmaid's Tale? Or it's better solo?

Gurveen wrote: "A question for those who have read it already: Do you think it's a good idea to read it along The Handmaid's Tale? Or it's better solo?"

I would not recommend reading the two books together. While The Handmaid's Tale is serious subject matter, Catch 22 is too frivolous in its humour. Both have good standing in literature, though.

Gurveen wrote: "A question for those who have read it already: Do you think it's a good idea to read it along The Handmaid's Tale? Or it's better solo?"

Solo

@surendra @shalini

I'll finish reading THT first :) it's almost done though. Hopefully, I'll be able to join in soon!

Have tried reading this several times. Not my cuppa

Three-fourth way through Catch 22. The satire is all too repetitive. Just about the first 100 pages were interesting humour. But after that, there is nothing new or different. It's too dragging now. I'll finish the book anyway.

Finally completed the book. Most parts I didn't like. Here's the catch; I rated it 5 Stars.

When you read a book that is a classic, but much of it you dislike, you ought to know there is something special about it, some catch you are missing. So was the case with me when I was reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.

Read the full review here:
cdrsnmohanty.wixsite.com/surendra-nat...