OCUK Book Club #1 (Catch 22 - Joseph Heller)

Just finished chapter eight (Lieutenant Scheisskopf) - Did anyone else find the final few pages (Clevinger in front of Major Metcalf, Lieutenant Scheisskopf & the Colonel) of this chapter as hard going as I did?

Really found it slightly over the top and extremely hard to follow especially as it was clearly a fast paced discussion but to follow it you had to really slow it down and concentrate to realise who said what.

I am understanding how people are referring to the book as desperately melodramatic in it's description of characters and moments with what seems to be intensely scrutinised words - some of the passages seem to have been analysed and certain words mulled over and carefully selected for on occasion only it's intellectual merit.

I do enjoy literature where the words conveying a moment seem to be obsessively selected to fit, as I feel a lot of authors cop out with the closest word they can find - however I think at moments Heller goes over the top and I am reaching for my dictionary just to find out what he means.

Rich
 
Am I to take that people are not having much to say about the book, or are too busy reading it to write any thoughts...?

Rich
 
Busy in general this week unfortunately: new work is not allowing me much spare time to get involved with serious reading of this text, as well as looming dissertations :(

120 pages in a week seems reasonable I'd say.

Crazy might have something to say about that though!
 
Voltar said:
Busy in general this week unfortunately: new work is not allowing me much spare time to get involved with serious reading of this text, as well as looming dissertations :(

120 pages in a week seems reasonable I'd say.

Crazy might have something to say about that though!
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Oh har-di-ha.

I can see I'm going to have to put up with you in all the subsequent book club threads :p

I'm not actually part of #1....got Anna Karenina, Brothers Karamazov and Norwegian Wood to get through!

But thought I'd let people know how they run the book club at SA...seems to be the best way to run it...
 
Just bought this to read on the bus going to and from Uni...so far I'm enjoying it quite a bit....
 
I'm about 1/3 of the way through my present book (Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson) but as soon as I get at least 3/4 of the way through I'll start to join in on this thread, probably a bit late by then but that is about the best I can offer as I'm not quite so committed to reading multiple books at once as I once was. :)
 
I'd started reading this before the book club, but i've not been reading it as much as i'd like. This certainly will help :) Have we decided on where we reading up to before discussion?
 
hendrix said:
I'd started reading this before the book club, but i've not been reading it as much as i'd like. This certainly will help :) Have we decided on where we reading up to before discussion?
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Chapter 10 (Wintergreen) by this monday is the part we are reading upto.

Rich
 
Just got my copy today after ordering it last weekend. I must say the postal service in Ireland is superb.

Only just started but I must say I really enjoyed the first chapter anyways and am looking forward to reading the rest.
 
meh, am afraid I am slightly behind in my re-reading :(
leaving the book at home when you are off for a long train journey also doesn't help one bit :p
am up to chapter 5 and a bit,
one thing I have noticed is that this time round, I don't really like Yossarian that much anymore. From the build up of his character from the chapters, do people get the sense that he's just one of them easily likeable guys that you hang out with at the bar, or does he have some really bad neuroses(sp?) that you'd stay really clear of him with a bargepole? Only asking this as in a way, wondering if it has an impact on whether you'd like to continue reading about the thoughts/story of Yossarian thats going to last through the book.
 
Quite honestly, I don't like him one bit. He's the type of guy who only cares about himself, screw the rest of the world, and definitely does not carry his weight. Er, I'll track down a quote somewhere, hang on a second...

EDIT: Well a passage actually;

Actually, there were many officers' clubs that Yossarian had not helped build, but he was proudest of the one on Pianosa. It was a sturdy and complex monument to his powers of determination. Yossarion never went there to help until it was finished; then he went there often, so pleased was he with the large, fine, rambling shingled building. It was truely a splendid structure, and Yossarian throbbed with a mighty sense of accomplishment each time he gazed at it and reflected that none of the work that had gone into it was his.
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-Page 20 (Published by Vintage 2004)

I didn't like the character before but this passage really solidified that dislike. Will continue reading the book though because I'm enjoying reading it, Yossarian aside.
 
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Antar Bolaeisk said:
Quite honestly, I don't like him one bit. He's the type of guy who only cares about himself, screw the rest of the world, and definitely does not carry his weight. Er, I'll track down a quote somewhere, hang on a second...

EDIT: Well a passage actually;

-Page 20 (Published by Vintage 2004)

I didn't like the character before but this passage really solidified that dislike. Will continue reading the book though because I'm enjoying reading it, Yossarian aside.
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I understand what you are getting at - but to me her comes across as the only sane man trapped in an insane place, but because of this fact, he does look insane (which is mentioned slightly in a passage with Doc Daneka).

With the passage you are mentioning - do you not think that is mirroring the higher up folks in the army, having nothing to do with it all, with the grunts actually doing the working, and then the Majors coming in and taking the credit?

Just a thought.

Rich
 
titchard said:
I understand what you are getting at - but to me her comes across as the only sane man trapped in an insane place, but because of this fact, he does look insane (which is mentioned slightly in a passage with Doc Daneka).

With the passage you are mentioning - do you not think that is mirroring the higher up folks in the army, having nothing to do with it all, with the grunts actually doing the working, and then the Majors coming in and taking the credit?

Just a thought.

Rich
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I got the whole how-does-an-Officer-dig-a-hole-thing but to take such pride in the fact that he had nothing to do with the building of the club and yet not taking pride in the ability of his men just annoys me. I will admit that I'm not that far in yet, only ten chapters, but I haven't seen him display any redeeming features of his character yet and I'm begining to think that there are none.

I assume the conversation between te Doc and Yossarian you're talking about is the Catch-22 discussion?

Also, does anybody else find this a slightly disorienting book with every scene flowing into the next scene like a blurred picture?
 
Ok, I'm up to the end of Chapter 10. What are we meant to be discussing?

So far I've not really had to revise my opinion from the last time I read it, it does have some good passages but is interspersed with long pointless rambles and tedium. I am enjoying it a bit more than I did when I first read it I think but it is difficult to say since it was so long ago. None of the characters are particularly likeable, the writing seems to vary between childish wordplay a la Terry Pratchett style (although he tells a more amusing story) and the authors clear sesquipedalian tendencies and it reads like he had a page count in mind rather than a story - perhaps the remaining 3/4 of the book will sway my opinion. At the moment I'm left both pleased and displeased that it lives up to the memories of my 12 year old self - pleased that I was (possibly) perceptive enough at 12 to see where the book could have been improved or was going wrong, displeased that I don't seem to have advanced beyond that point but perhaps I'd got it nailed on at that point so there was nothing further to read into it.
 
I think the more I read it the more I am warming to Yossarian - he does seem more and more likable the more he says. He does make sense - I don't think that it is just himself he is thinking of.

Rich
 
semi-pro waster said:
the writing seems to vary between childish wordplay a la Terry Pratchett style (although he tells a more amusing story) and the authors clear sesquipedalian tendencies
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I think the descriptions that contradict themselves within the book are key to the story, as it is about contradictions, et al. I agree he can be long winded but the sesquipedalian tendencies of Heller are what draw me further into the story.

Rich
 
semi-pro waster said:
I might be alone in this but I didn't think that Catch 22 was all that great, I admit that I read it quite a long time ago (when I was 12 I think) but it just seemed to take the long way to make a fairly simple point. I may have to re-read it again though to see if I just missed something good about it.
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That is how I see it, but I took delivery of it today.
 
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