[silvat]

I tried reading catch-22 twice before successfully getting through it. I felt the same as you did. I think my problem the first 2 times was that I was looking for the 'hook' or whatever it was that people were so fanatical about. As a consequence, I think I was glossing over the dialogue and not really ingesting what was going on. The third time I decided to just take it at face value, try and enjoy the dialogue and if no bigger picture emerges, so be it. This approach turned out to be the key. It's an incredibly funny and poignant book and what happens is that while you get through all these seemingly (initally) trivial scenes, a point does in fact start to emerge. The triviality is actually central to the main point. People keep dying off for arbitrary reasons and the being part of the war is so detached from the apparent reasons for the war is actually taking place. It's one of my favorite books. I truly recommended trying to read it again.