1961: Catch-22

Book Name: Catch-22

Author: Joseph Heller

Genre: War Fiction; Black Humour

Year Published: 1961

     Catch-22 is a book I've been meaning to read for a long time and just never got around to. Honestly, I didn't even know much of what it was about before I read it, but I'd heard lots of people recommend it and the fact the book title has even made its way into regular English speech was very interesting in itself. As it turns out, it's set in Italy during World War II and deals with a wide range of characters and their experiences whilst serving there.
     Catch-22 as we use it today is basically a dilemma which you can't escape from, because one situation conflicts with another. In the case of the novel's main character, Yossarian, he must be insane if he keeps flying combat missions, but if he requests to stop flying them, he is clearly sane and must keep flying. Thus a large part of the novel revolves around the initial theme of Yossarian trying to get out of the war.

    The way in which the story is written is excellent, particularly the way the chapters centre on different characters and weave back and forth through time, yet without causing undue confusion. Somehow Heller has made it flow perfectly, and it is very interesting to read about a situation from one person's viewpoint, and then to come across the same situation in a later chapter, but recalled by a different character. It is also peppered with dark humour, which I wasn't altogether expecting from a war novel, and which made it very enjoyable reading. 

    Of course, along with the humour, there are less pleasant sections of the book. It is set during World War II after all. Deaths abound, as well as societal issues such as poverty, prostitution and isolation. For every bit in the book that makes you feel like the characters are having a jolly old time, it is countered by a frank reminder of where they are and what is happening around them. It really is an excellent depiction of what the war was like for those involved, especially when you consider that Heller himself served in the war, flying 60 combat missions on the Italian front. 

    Overall, I would highly recommend this book and hope that my description has been fairly accurate - it was a very difficult book to describe! A few parts here and there at the beginning may need to be reread, as I didn't get how the book was laid out straight away and it was a little confusing initially. In the end though, the way it oscillates between humour and sadness, past and present is really what made the book for me. It is absolutely worth persevering though, it only gets better.

Other Books I Considered: The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster; Solaris - Stanislaw Lem; Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein
Books I Read Inbetween: Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights? - Lemony Snicket