classics

This is my title: and I believe it. The greatest novel of all time.

The reviews below will doubtlessly get further into the more complicated issues--the themes, the meaning of certain characters, the fractured chronology--but the fact remains that this will be, for a great number of people, the most profound work they ever read.

Catch-22 is a riot from start to finish. There are plenty of hilarious books, but few that will make you laugh as often or as embarrassingly loud as this one. The book, however, is not just about comedy--that's just another level on top of the heartfelt sadness that consumes the book's greatest heroes (Yossarian and Dunbar). The true meaning lies somewhere between the moral decisions of every character of the book--Yossarian's decision to live through the war or die trying; Dunbar's decision to spare all innocents at all costs; Col. Cathcart's decision to win the war at all costs; Doc Daneeka's decision to complain about the war while doing nothing to counter the immoral acts taking place all around him.

It's a book for rebels; fine. It's an anti-government book, anti-war book; fine. It's hysterical, depressing, life-affirming, epic, fascinating, and, at a basic, human level, true. Fine.

The fact remains: Catch-22 has more to offer than any book I have ever read. Try the first chapter and you'll know it's for you; it's the fastest 463 pages you'll ever read; the world's greatest combination of comedy and tragedy in one work.

I can only gush so long. Just read the ... thing.

This dark comedy of World War Two takes place on the small island of Pianosa, off the coast of Italy. The main character, Yossarian, is an American bombardier, and like his squadron, spends much of his time either flying dangerous bombing runs over northern Italy, sleeping off his exuberances in Rome, or going on some hilarious comical escapade through which Heller is able to satirize the American military bureaucracy.

At first glance (or the first reading), this novel appears to be a random collection of character sketches, loosely arranged around Yossarian and containing only confusingly humorous conversational drivel. But on the second reading, everything makes sense and it is possible to see how the comic absurdity changes from light and fun at the beginning into a dark and melancholy satire by the end of the novel.

Joseph Heller first published this novel in 1961, and since then the phrase "Catch-22" has entered into the English language as a "paradoxical problem or situation." In this book, Catch-22 is an obscure military regulation that allows for an illogical and absurd system to exist.

Completely illogical logic and embarrassingly simple complexity await the individual who undertakes the reading of this excellent novel, which has become both an amusing comedy and a pensive tragedy at the same time.

Bottom line? Catch-22 is an excellent book.

Catch 22 is a story set during World War II. A significant choice for what is, ostensibly, an anti-war satire, since that particular war was a universally popular one butressed by high moral motivations. But that is the point, for Catch 22 is not simply a lampoon of war, but a searing indictment of man's spiritual crisis in the modern world.

On all fronts, the main character, Yossarian, is assailed by the dehumanized absurdities of mondern life, manifested most concretely in that perfected science of death, modern warfare. Yossarian, like all of us, is chained by rationality that has been stripped of reason, engineered thus for the purpose of control. That is the essence of Catch 22.

The character of Milo Minderbinder represents the cold, opportunistic thinking of the corporate world, dead as it is to humanistic concerns in its tireless pursuit of profit and power. Chaplain Tappman embodies the impotence and self-doubt common to many people of faith who feel adrift in a culture of materialisticly driven insanity. But it is Yossarian's wanderings through Rome, the Eternal City, and as such, the representation of modern "civilized" society, that is the coup de grace. It is a moonlit, poetic scene lamenting the spiritual and humanistic decay and ultimate bankruptcy of modern Western society. Simply powerful stuff.

Properly speaking, Catch 22 is more a series of vignettes or short stories rather than a novel. But it is told with a humor that bristles with moral outrage. While not perfect, it is an excellent read, and definitely recommened.