Catch-22

I encountered this book backward. As a teenager growing up at the end of the US war in Vietnam, I read the Mad magazine spoof of the movie version long before I saw the movie itself, and then I read the novel. I focused on the antiwar theme and the concern of the bomber crew to get home without getting shot down.

The novel was based on Heller’s wartime experience, but I hardly realized it was about bombing Italy until I discovered the papers one of his crewmates had donated to Cornell University. I learned how many of the episodes… show more.

Whilst on humour (including satire): it is an important part of REBT. Humor is another one of those character strengths in positive psychology (again, good for you when used appropriately). It’s not for nothing that laughter is called the best medicine (in fact, I wrote my MSc dissertation on the use of humor in psychotherapy).

Humor, especially satire, and wordplay have helped me a lot in life. Regarding those two things, this book is the best bar none. Both funny and tragic (which sums life up pretty well), considering how much saber rattling is happening today, it’s as relevant now… show more.

While set in World War II, this absurdist comic novel was written in the 1960s and clearly comments on the Vietnam War. I love that approach. Setting the story in the past gives the book some distance from the situation it is satirizing.

I used this approach in my book, setting it in the 1980s so I could write about Florida’s excesses and the rise of extreme capitalism in a country headed by a different celebrity president. 

This book is set during World War II. Captain John Yossarian, bombardier, has a hard time maintaining his sanity, let alone keeping alive. His crazed commander demands that the crew fly ever more dangerous missions. Yossarian realises a terrible truth: “The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on.” When men request leave because they are going crazy, the camp doctor explains the catch-22. "Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy."

Yossarian’s predicament was more extreme, his adults more dangerous, but like my other big brothers, he insisted… show more.

There is direct evidence of the horrors of war in this book, but the primary mode of showing these horrors is through the effects on the troops. If they are crazy or doing crazy things, it is because of what has happened to them.

I was sucked into the book like I think Heller meant me to be – curious and even amused by the absurdities, then engaged and affected by the characters, and finally shocked by the kind of events behind it all. Sitting naked in a tree is absurd/funny, and being angry at the leadership for changing the… show more.

With its repetition and echoing of phrases, Kafkaesque chronology, and circular logic, Catch-22 illustrates the absurdity of war more than any other novel I have read.

Every time pilot Yossarian, the book’s anti-hero, gets close to flying the number of bombing missions required to go home, the requirement is raised. A paradoxical catch keeps them flying. If you ask to be grounded because you understand the dangers, you aren’t insane. Insane soldiers just need to ask to be grounded. But asking proves you aren’t crazy.

Beneath the absurdist comedy, there is an existential dread at the heart of the book.… show more.

The origin of the phrase “Catch-22” this intriguing spiral into the absurdity of reality, particularly in war, is an exceptional tale.

Although it can be somewhat protracted, it is never boring. Following and recounting the inexplicable and illogical inequalities that life often has to over through the eyes of one ‘Yossarian’, it explores the gauntlet of the commonly uncommon in any form; love, fear, empathy, sympathy, dereliction, sardonicism and, finally, hope.

What truly remained with me was the tone of the book, only changing when truly necessary. For anyone trying to make sense of the chaos of life, dealing with… show more.

This is a startlingly original book I remember first reading it during my A-level studies and thinking wow, what is this Joseph Heller fella doing? Where’s the beginning, middle, and end structure gone? Can you really call a character Major Major and get away with it? It’s beautifully unpredictable and harshly critical of war in its own satirical way. It’s the yardstick for all novels for me. And the source of one of my biggest regrets: not going to a presentation Heller gave in my hometown—Croydon, South London in 1999—just months before he died.

Catch-22 is a laugh-out-loud funny and grotesquely horrific antiwar satire that exposes the absurdity of the military bureaucracy and of war. It focuses on Yossarian, a WWII bombardier who doesn’t want to fly any more missions. The book is so complex and detailed you’ll find something new in it with each reading. The title, meaning a dilemma with no solution, has found its way into the English language—you can look it up in Webster’s. The catch-22 in Catch-22 is this: If you wanted to get out of combat duty you had to be crazy. But anybody who wanted to get… show more.

A classic on the absurdity of war which remains relevant to this day. It also has a really interesting and unique structure—no spoilers, but it’s not exactly linear—which I think of more like a complex painting, each chapter filling in a bit more of the canvas, until by the end you feel like you have the complete picture. Plus, very funny, of course.