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Whaffled t1_jact9w5 wrote

I'd second that! Mailer's The Naked and the Dead is also well worth your time.

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BinstonBirchill t1_jacu9ye wrote

Catch-22 stands alone in American military literature.

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nedoperepela OP t1_jada30j wrote

Would you consider it a classic? I’m sorry, my school system privileged the British literature and I’m only now catching up on the US one :’)

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BinstonBirchill t1_jadh2m9 wrote

Yeah it’s unlike anything else out there really. With the absurdity, the most impactful thing is how close to reality it actually is at times. Really gets across how a bombadier would have felt in wwii.

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nedoperepela OP t1_jadk0sp wrote

Thank you so much! That’s the vibe that intrigued me, while we were talking about it :)

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BinstonBirchill t1_jadhq3t wrote

Other highly regarded novels you didn’t list would be Once An Eagle which is basically about what a good military leader should be like. And Matterhorn which is a novel set in the Vietnam War

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nedoperepela OP t1_jadnf3k wrote

Thank you! I’ll look them up and maybe ask my professor a thing or two about them :)

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lucia-pacciola t1_jacuih9 wrote

Catch-22's register?

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nedoperepela OP t1_jadaa7k wrote

Yep, we mentioned the pungent irony and the very direct, colloquial tone the author chose to convey the messages put forward in the book. Also, the fact that he often uses nonsense to mirror the craziness and - again - nonsense of war

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BernardFerguson1944 t1_jacutro wrote

Catch-22 is a great book. It's my all-time favorite book. Heller weaves several story lines into a fine tapestry of literature. I have not read the other two, but I did read The Thin Red Line, which I believe is comparable to The Naked and the Dead. The Thin Red Line is a good book, but I prefer nonfiction, e.g., Into The Valley: A Skirmish of the Marines by John Hersey, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugen B. Sledge, and Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle by Richard Frank.

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nedoperepela OP t1_jad9w3q wrote

Thank you so much! I will try and check them out :)

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books-ModTeam t1_jad0dy4 wrote

Hello. Your post would be better asked in our Simple Questions thread. Thank you.

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