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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Book Review - Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

I remember reading this book in high school and I remember enjoying it so I was looking forward to re-reading it (even if it is over 450 pages long). As I remembered it was a very entertaining book and was a pretty easy read. The constant infusion of satirical and ludicrously comical situations in an environment of war and death provided an ever-intriguing canvas on which to paint the story of Yossarian, the main character of the book.

To give a glimpse of the feel of the book, I figure I would include a (long) snippet of the book leading up to the first mention of the infamous Catch-22:

Doc Daneeka snickered once and was soon immersed in problems of his own, which included Chief White Halfoat, who had been challenging him all that morning to Indian wrestle, and Yossarian, who decided right then and there to go crazy.
"You're wasting your time," Doc Daneeka was forced to tell him.
"Can't you ground someone who's crazy?"
"Oh, sure. I have to. There's a rule saying that I have to ground anyone who's crazy."
"Then why can't you ground me? I'm crazy. Ask Clevinger."
"Clevinger? Where is Clevinger? You find me Clevinger and I'll ask him."
"Then ask any of the others. They'll tell you how crazy I am."
"They're crazy."
"Then why don't you ground them?"
"Why don't they ask me to ground them?"
"Because they're crazy, that's why."
"Of course they're crazy," Doc Daneeka replied. "I just told you they're crazy, didn't I? And you can't let crazy people decide whether you're crazy or not, can you?"
Yossarian looked at him soberly and tried another approach. "Is Orr crazy?"
"He sure is," Doc Daneeka said.
"Can you ground him?"
"I sure can, but first he has to ask me to. That's part of the rule."
"Then why doesn't he ask you to?"
"Because he's crazy," Doc Daneeka said. "He has to be crazy to keep flying combat missions after all the close calls he's had. Sure, I can ground Orr. But first he has to ask me to."
"That's all he has to do to be grounded?"
"That's all. Let him ask me."
"And then you can ground him?" Yossarian asked.
"No. Then I can't ground him."
"You mean there's a catch?"
"Sure there's a catch," Doc Daneeka replied. "Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy."


I hope that that is enough to give a glimpse of the style of the book. This still remains one of my favorite books (even outside the realm of school-required reading) and it was a pleasure to get to read it again. I highly recommend it and hope it was good enough that the momentum will carry through my next book, 1984. :-)

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