I've made it through the first 100 pages and I have to say that it is not at all what I expected it to be. I hadn't expected it to be so ludicrously amusing. The conversation is unbelievable.
The CID men remind me of the one CIA officer in M*A*S*H who is always coming to investigate matters at the 4077. He is always acting so tough and being so stupid!
Otherwise, the book thus far reminds me of Dr. Strangelove.
Oh, and I want to mention the obligatory Moby Dick comment within the first 20 pages. I wonder if anyone has ever counted how many books have referenced Moby Dick? Wizard of Oz is also frequently mentioned in books and movies.
Well, I've finally finished it. It wasn't at all like I expected, and truthfully, I'm not sure what I want to say about it. I'll try not to spoil anything for you in case your reading this before you've finished.
At first I found the dialogue amusing, but after the first 150 pages it just seemed to be repetitive and pointless. I felt as though I was rereading the same conversation over and over again.
I liked how Heller ended the book, but thought he took a long time getting there. It seemed that Yossarian was leaning that way through much of the book and yet it took him that long and that many deaths to finally get to the point where he does it.
My favorite quote comes from a conversation between Yossarian and a prostitute, in Chapter 18, when they are discussing religion. Finally, he says, "Let's have a little more religious freedom between us. You don't believe in the God you want to, and I won't believe in the God I want to. Is that a deal?"
I also liked a statement made near the end of the book when Yossarian is contemplating the misery of the world, in Chapter 39, "Every victim was a culprit, and every culprit was a victim, and somebody had to stand up sometime to try to break the lousy chain of inherited habit that was imperiling them all." This seems to sum up some of what I try to teach in Women's Studies, but students have difficulty understanding. They always want to see things in black and white, as victim or culprit only.
I'm not particularly fond of the way that Heller portrays the women in the book. Although, to be fair, he doesn't portray the men very well either. However, the men seemed to have more variety of failings than the women did.
To finish up, I don't think I will be keeping this book. I like several parts of it, but overall I found it difficult to plow through the middle 200 pages and also ended up feeling rather depressed. I'm glad I read it, and that you picked it Angie, but I do not see myself ever rereading it.
Im struggling through the middle 200 pages this weekend.
So far I find it slightly amusing, but very disjointed. I'm thinking this Bologna mess is done, and now we can move on to something substantial. But probably not.
Well, I'm about halfway through. Hope to finish this week now that school is winding down. Also have to agree, this seems very disjointed. I'm waiting for things to click.
Well I finished the book today. It was not great. I think Heller was on drugs hallucinating through the last 75 pages. That was tough to follow. I had high hopes for this book and the beginning was okay but I agree with you Melissa, it gets pretty repetitive. I was hoping for things to click and it never seemed like they did.
This book was made into a major motion picture (as my copy advertises). I wonder if the movie is better?
Not a re-read for me either. It goes back to the library tomorrow.
First, a quote that I really liked, from Chapter 39, Eternal City: ".. no craving for wealth or immortality could be so great, he felt, as to subsist on the sorrow of children." and one from Chapter 6, Hungry Joe: "Hollywood star. Multi dinero. Multi divorces. Multi ficky-fick all day long."
I think the one thing that I will really take from this book is the phrase ficky-fick, and in fact I've already thrown it into conversation twice today.
Characters: Meh. I liked Nately, Orr and the Chaplain. I kind of liked Major Major. I detested Aarfy. Every time he pretended like he couldn't hear Yossarian in the plane I would get so angry at him! The female characters stank. Nurse or whore. Mary or Eve. It's been done. Though I did rather like Mrs. Daneeka. tee hee.
Plot: Double Meh. I didn't see Orr's escape coming, but did see Yossarian's. Milo's subplot really annoyed me, especially when Snowden was dying and there was no morphine. I did like that we got more and more details of Snowdens death as the book went on. I could tell that it was a major factor in Yossarian's decline, and I thought it as a ice touch to give more detail the more frustrated he became. That is the type of writing that makes me want to reread a book. Unfortunately, it was the only think in this book that made me want to read any part of it again.
Pointless Chapters: The chapter about Yossarian fighting with Nately's whore went on for about 10 pages longer than it needed to, in my opinion. Seemed like Heller just wanted to get in all the types of knives he was familiar with.. The chapter about the chaplain being interrogated was completely pointless. WTH? Also all the chapters about Milo's syndicate.
I saw many plots from M*A*S*H in this book, and wonder if the writers drew on it for inspiration.
Glad I read this, as I had always wanted to, but equally glad it's over. I was very disappointed, and overall I say ficky-fick this book, read sparknotes instead.
13 comments:
I've made it through 2 pages of the introduction. ... =)
I've made it through the first 100 pages and I have to say that it is not at all what I expected it to be. I hadn't expected it to be so ludicrously amusing. The conversation is unbelievable.
The CID men remind me of the one CIA officer in M*A*S*H who is always coming to investigate matters at the 4077. He is always acting so tough and being so stupid!
Otherwise, the book thus far reminds me of Dr. Strangelove.
Oh, and I want to mention the obligatory Moby Dick comment within the first 20 pages. I wonder if anyone has ever counted how many books have referenced Moby Dick? Wizard of Oz is also frequently mentioned in books and movies.
Well, I've finally finished it. It wasn't at all like I expected, and truthfully, I'm not sure what I want to say about it. I'll try not to spoil anything for you in case your reading this before you've finished.
At first I found the dialogue amusing, but after the first 150 pages it just seemed to be repetitive and pointless. I felt as though I was rereading the same conversation over and over again.
I liked how Heller ended the book, but thought he took a long time getting there. It seemed that Yossarian was leaning that way through much of the book and yet it took him that long and that many deaths to finally get to the point where he does it.
My favorite quote comes from a conversation between Yossarian and a prostitute, in Chapter 18, when they are discussing religion. Finally, he says, "Let's have a little more religious freedom between us. You don't believe in the God you want to, and I won't believe in the God I want to. Is that a deal?"
I also liked a statement made near the end of the book when Yossarian is contemplating the misery of the world, in Chapter 39, "Every victim was a culprit, and every culprit was a victim, and somebody had to stand up sometime to try to break the lousy chain of inherited habit that was imperiling them all." This seems to sum up some of what I try to teach in Women's Studies, but students have difficulty understanding. They always want to see things in black and white, as victim or culprit only.
I'm not particularly fond of the way that Heller portrays the women in the book. Although, to be fair, he doesn't portray the men very well either. However, the men seemed to have more variety of failings than the women did.
To finish up, I don't think I will be keeping this book. I like several parts of it, but overall I found it difficult to plow through the middle 200 pages and also ended up feeling rather depressed. I'm glad I read it, and that you picked it Angie, but I do not see myself ever rereading it.
Im struggling through the middle 200 pages this weekend.
So far I find it slightly amusing, but very disjointed. I'm thinking this Bologna mess is done, and now we can move on to something substantial. But probably not.
Just so you know- Bologna will keep coming back.
Just as I expected..
Well, I'm about halfway through. Hope to finish this week now that school is winding down. Also have to agree, this seems very disjointed. I'm waiting for things to click.
I'm also about halfway through. This entire chapter about egg/chickpea/artichoke buying is wack-o.
I'm forcing myself to give about 2 solid hours to it today, though.
Well I finished the book today. It was not great. I think Heller was on drugs hallucinating through the last 75 pages. That was tough to follow. I had high hopes for this book and the beginning was okay but I agree with you Melissa, it gets pretty repetitive. I was hoping for things to click and it never seemed like they did.
This book was made into a major motion picture (as my copy advertises). I wonder if the movie is better?
Not a re-read for me either. It goes back to the library tomorrow.
I'm down to the last 20 pages and will finish tonight. I am also not impressed; will post more tomorrow.
First, a quote that I really liked, from Chapter 39, Eternal City:
".. no craving for wealth or immortality could be so great, he felt, as to subsist on the sorrow of children."
and one from Chapter 6, Hungry Joe:
"Hollywood star. Multi dinero. Multi divorces. Multi ficky-fick all day long."
I think the one thing that I will really take from this book is the phrase ficky-fick, and in fact I've already thrown it into conversation twice today.
Characters: Meh. I liked Nately, Orr and the Chaplain. I kind of liked Major Major. I detested Aarfy. Every time he pretended like he couldn't hear Yossarian in the plane I would get so angry at him!
The female characters stank. Nurse or whore. Mary or Eve. It's been done. Though I did rather like Mrs. Daneeka. tee hee.
Plot: Double Meh. I didn't see Orr's escape coming, but did see Yossarian's. Milo's subplot really annoyed me, especially when Snowden was dying and there was no morphine. I did like that we got more and more details of Snowdens death as the book went on. I could tell that it was a major factor in Yossarian's decline, and I thought it as a ice touch to give more detail the more frustrated he became. That is the type of writing that makes me want to reread a book. Unfortunately, it was the only think in this book that made me want to read any part of it again.
Pointless Chapters:
The chapter about Yossarian fighting with Nately's whore went on for about 10 pages longer than it needed to, in my opinion. Seemed like Heller just wanted to get in all the types of knives he was familiar with..
The chapter about the chaplain being interrogated was completely pointless. WTH?
Also all the chapters about Milo's syndicate.
I saw many plots from M*A*S*H in this book, and wonder if the writers drew on it for inspiration.
Glad I read this, as I had always wanted to, but equally glad it's over. I was very disappointed, and overall I say ficky-fick this book, read sparknotes instead.
I'm thinking the book is one BIG metafore about war, that it is all disconnected, nothing makes sense and generals and lieutenants don't have a clue.
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