Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse 5 are great antiwar satires which I have recently read. All Quiet on the Western Front is also great albeit incredibly depressing.
I read Catch-22 in high school and I actually read it twice. It's still one of the most impactful books I've ever read.
I was a very sheltered kid and hadn't thought much about the world, death, war, how awful humans can be, so the first time through, I laughed basically the whole way through. It was fucking hilarious and clearly just a fun romp through a crazy war, right? And then the last chapter happened and recontextualized the whole damn thing. I started it again pretty immediately, and this time, I wasn't laughing. This time the jokes that had been literally laugh out loud funny the first time just made me deeply sad.
Catch-22 is not an experience I'm likely to forget.
Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse 5 are great antiwar satires which I have recently read. All Quiet on the Western Front is also great albeit incredibly depressing.
I read Catch-22 in high school and I actually read it twice. It's still one of the most impactful books I've ever read.
I was a very sheltered kid and hadn't thought much about the world, death, war, how awful humans can be, so the first time through, I laughed basically the whole way through. It was fucking hilarious and clearly just a fun romp through a crazy war, right? And then the last chapter happened and recontextualized the whole damn thing. I started it again pretty immediately, and this time, I wasn't laughing. This time the jokes that had been literally laugh out loud funny the first time just made me deeply sad.
Catch-22 is not an experience I'm likely to forget.