Review: Catch 22

Joseph Heller, Catch 22 (1961; this edition Simon & Schuster 2004)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/168668.Catch_22?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=4HU7hngs6f&rank=1

Bombardier captain Yossarian is in hospital, trying to eke out the luxury of having meals brought to him in bed for as long as possible. Regretfully discharged, he spends the rest of the war trying not to get killed, having nonsensical conversations and ‘not giv[ing] a damn’.
The insanity of war and the military bureaucracy are constant themes. Air force doc Daneeka is authorised to ground pilots who are crazy; the ‘catch’ is that ‘anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn’t really crazy’. Every time Yossarian nears his quota of combat missions and looks forward to going home, Col. Cathcart raises the quota.
Yossarian presents himself in the nude to receive a medal. But he is not the only victim of war insanity. There’s a soldier living in the woods, and men are playing musical beds in the hospital trying to appropriate more serious diagnoses. Gen. Dreedle is obsessed with choreographing bombing patterns so they photograph well. Col. Scheisskopf’s first item of business upon being promoted to General is to order the marching of more parades. Aarfy rapes and kills an Italian girl, yet it is Yossarian the MPs arrest, for being in Rome without a pass.
The style is almost stream of consciousness. Yossarian is often in the background of the action, but we still see things from his point of view. Each chapter focuses more or less on a particular character, and there’s little linear plot. The plot is just a bunch of men doing whatever craziness they need to do to get through the war.
I was surprised to learn that this masterpiece of satire got mixed reviews when it first came out. Most now would acknowledge as one of the great works of literature. Yossarian’s understated wit is not laugh-out-loud funny; rather, his cynical turns of phrase will stay with you, etched in your memory as something new and original.