Customer Reviews
Catch-22 isn't really a critique about war or about the military in specific. It's an allegorical critique of Capitalism and the whole Western system. In the twilight of socialism that has descended since the fall of Communism, the book's critique seems unduly harsh, but the warning message is worth remembering.What is "Catch-22?" There are at least a dozen examples in the book, and seem very difffernt. What they have in common is that each one is really saying "the rules of the system prevent reform of the system." Examples include "you can only enter the Major's office when he isn't in it," and "you can get out of the war if you're crazy, but if you ASK, it proves you're not crazy."Milo, the arch Capitalist, is in many ways the worst villain in the book. Milo traffics with the enemy, steals medical supplies (leaving his worthless IOU), and even contracts to bomb his own side. The corruption of Milo's money reaches far up the chain of command, and many of the worst absurdities are tracable to Milo's schemes.The only way around the system is to break the rules -- to overthrow it. The new recruits who throw out the personal effects of the dead man in Yossarian's tent show how in a small way; Orr demonstrates it in a large way, and the fact that Orr ends up in Sweden points to socialism as a solution to the problems of the capitalist world.Obviously, in today's world, the example of Sweden doesn't look so appealing, and the Capitalist West has shown substantial ability to reform itself inside its own rules. Still, the book is a great read, and the lesson is worth learning, if only as an example of what we have avoided -- and need to continue to avoid.
Classic reasonable value.
Catch-22 is a classic. You should read it. You shouldn't read the Kindle edition. Someone went through the text with autocorrect and it's riddled with errors. Screenshots with examples underlined attached. Characters' names have been changed to laughable dictionary approximations including "Apple by" (Appleby), "General Wheedler" and "General Needle" (General Dreedle), "Clinger" (Clevinger), and "ex-P. C Wintergreen" (ex-PFC Wintergreen), and regular words are mangled too, e.g. USO troupe -> "U.S.S troupe", and, hilariously, "crap" instead of "craps" (the dice game). This is funny and all, but you just know some kid is going to write a term paper about the symbolism of Clinger being introduced around the crap table, and it's tiresome to be constantly trying to remember what the character's real name is (and if they're the same character as earlier in the paragraph where it said something different).You get what you pay for in the 99-cent ebook, I guess, but I still expect the book to be the actual book. I doubt the Heller estate would be pleased with the quality of this edition, and I doubt it's authorized.
This has been on my to-be-read list for a long time, and I finally got around to it. Since this book has stood the test of time, my rating applies to the Kindle version. It is always a risk when you buy a Kindle edition of a book. I have seen so many quality issue-- even with expensive editions that should have been great. This edition is excellent.
Great book coining the phrasecatch 22
