I started this blog and then I stopped. I got busy, and I've been reading, but I went ahead and got myself a new job and got caught up in traveling, so I've been away. But I'm back, and I have a lot of books to write about. I'm taking the semester off from my part-time postbacc program, so I have all this time to read. My new job is one of those really regulated positions at a big company where I get lots of benefits and only actually work like 6.5 hours a day. It's nice. I get an hour at lunch and I have no one to eat with, so I read a lot. Plus my commute takes forever so I read then, too. What does this have to do with Catch 22? Nothing. I'll get started on that now...
Synopsis: Yossarian is an officer in the U.S. Army during World War II. He is obsessed with the idea that people are trying to kill him. The book is pretty much a ridiculous satire of the war and the soldiers involved in it. Yossarian pretends to be sick so that he can stay in the hospital. He flies missions so that he can be sent home, but every time he gets close to finishing the mission limit, the commanding officer raises them. The characters in this book are hyperbolic and cartoonish, but nonetheless the book is tremendously entertaining and ridiculous. It is a very fun read, although towards the end becomes a little bit heavy as the death toll increases and we finally realize that the characters are actually at war. Although this is disheartening, it is obviously necessary in a book about war, and Joseph Heller does a great job of "ending" the book on a semi-positive note.
My Thoughts: Several years ago, when I was in high school, I picked this book up, read about twelve pages and put it down. It was full of "SAT" words, and the book itself was heavy, and the words so densely packed on the page, that I just did not have the energy to pick it up again. I carried the opinion that it was a dry, boring book around with me -- although I had no justification to actually have that opinion. Then my dad mentioned how much he liked it. And then a few other friends said the same thing. So, I decided to pick it up again, and this time I enjoyed it so much that I could barely put it down to go to sleep at night. I dreamed that I was flying a fighter plane. It is a totally engrossing book, not to mention a sort of brilliantly crafted intellectual exercise. The events become overwhelmingly complex and overlapping. The characters are satirical and often flat, but at the same time each man in the book is a unique example of a characteristic in a soldier. Although this book is not necessarily one of the most profound books in the literary cannon, I do think it makes some insightful points about war, and is certainly more entertaining than many that I have read.
