Catch-22? More like Catch-8,000,000...

if you believe the number of books printed by the time this edition came out. Cuzzin Ross bought me a dog-eared copy of the book when he was out on holiday last May, after we'd been discussing what we'd read and he said that this was one of his all-time favourites. Personally people, I think it's the biggest load of shite I've ever laid eyes on!!! There is so much duplication of phrases and scenes, that if the book were written properly the first time round (or edited correctly), the first printed edition would have been one-third the size of the final manuscript. And if you want to believe that the duplication adds to the hilarity of the plot, sorry for you, it's nothing more than a waste of the reader's time. In actual fact, I ended up finishing the book purely so that I would be able to say to my Cuzzin "Thanks bro. It was an experience." I can also now say that I was one of the 8,000,000-odd suckers who endured Heller's inanity just to be able to say to fellow readers "Stay the hell away from it!!" In fairness though, I must hastily add that there were at least two moments through the book when I laughed. Sadly, they were in the last third of the book and, had there been more of the same humour in the first two-thirds, it would have made for a much more enjoyable read. The back outside cover sprouts praise from various American tabloids, who probably didn't even read it themselves or they might have changed their reviews. Take, for example, the review by The Los Angeles Mirror, which states "A triumph! A classic of our era!" Do me a fuckin' favour... And The New York Times wrote: "Wildly orignal, brutally gruesome, vulgarly, bitterly, savagely funny...It will not be forgotten by those who can take it!" Which fuckin' book were you reading, asshole? It certainly wasn't this one...there was more "brutally gruesome" and "savagely funny" in Sven Hassel's series of books about the Nazi tank crews in Russia during the offensive. Well, the Times got part of it right anyway...I won't forget the book. For those of you out there who have nothing better to do right before you throw yourself off a building, or slit your wrists in the bath, I suggest reading it in final defiance of the cruelty of one human being on the rest of the world. For the rest of the human race...stay the fuck away from this piece of crap lest you end up wanting to slit your wrists as well.