Book #2 for the book club I am in. We wanted to read a classic, one that none of us had read yet. We settled on Catch-22. I feel like everyone has heard the phrase "catch-22", but when I tried to explain what the book is about to friends, I struggled.
Catch-22 is a satire military book. Set during World War II, Yossarian is a bombardier. He must fly a certain number of missions in order to complete his service. But every time he comes close to the required number of missions, the military increases the number of missions. Yossarian is trapped by catch-22: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.
The beginning of the book was slow. I fell asleep numerous times trying to read it. It did end up picking up with some more interesting characters. Each chapter is about a character. There are A LOT of characters. And they don't necessarily interact. Each character provides an avenue to make satirical points about war. There is a lot of weird humor, double meanings, and sarcasm.
I have to admit I did not finish the book. In fact, no one in the book club did. I know this book is a classic, and truthfully it was not that bad. You have to read it slow and really pay attention. High schools and curriculums that force kids to read books like Catch-22 are the reason kids do not like to read. If your first few experiences reading "adult" books are like this, then I can understand why you would hate reading. It's sad, because there are so many good books out there. Imagine if high schoolers were required to read Harry Potter and write papers about him. Their interest in reading would skyrocket and things would be so different.
My rating for Catch-22: 1 star out of 5. Get it here!
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