Catch-22

Joseph Heller
1961
Rating: 2

I started having bad thoughts about this novel about 40 pages into it, and my contempt only increased as I moved forward, until I decided I’d had enough at page 97 and put it down for good. I was a bit distraught at the prospect of not liking a book that so many friends and critics love, so I asked around, among my novel-reading friends. One of them called it his favorite novel, said he’d read it 3 or 4 times. Another friend lamented that he’d tried and failed to get into it 3 times.

My problems with the book were (a) too many characters, (b) scanty plot development, (c) very little in the way of meaningful character development (see [a]), (d) jokes, or, more accurately an absurdist posture that felt forced after page 30, and (e) not great language, no eye for interesting detail or vivid imagery.

It’s very dialog-heavy, and the dialog was probably interesting or distinctive when it came out in 1961, but, maybe today it’s something of a victim of its own success. Not that the dialog is stale, but it’s not strong enough to carry the first 11 chapters. As I read it, it seemed like it worked better as a script for a sit-com.

According to the wiki page for the novel, those first 11 chapters form sort of a loose first section of the book, and then chapters 12 through 20 or so detail an attack on Bologna, so they’re presumably a bit more plot-driven. For all I know, they might be pretty great, but unfortunately I am not willing to give the book any more of my time. I don’t have the magnanimity required to give someone a pass after 11 bad chapters.

I was intrigued by the idea of someone attempting to do a re-mix of Catch-22 that cut out the bits that should have been cut out before it was published.