Joseph Heller's Catch 22

There are a very few books that grasp the reader’s attention right from the beginning, and they look forward to ‘what happens next’. Here, though ‘what happened before’ also remains a question. The irony is the mystery takes a long time to unravel. By long I mean, towards the end.

                The characters are named in the very beginning without any background description and then they are referred to every now and then. Since one doesn’t identify the characters well, it gets confusing with a ‘who is that?’.

                Equally confusing is the story line, it takes time to figure out whether the events are moving back and forth or the progression is linear. But figuring that out, doesn’t even seem like a necessity. Initially understandable or not, the book is completely enjoyable.

                Enjoyable, in a literal sense, it makes one laugh like anything. Like really pausing and laughing with the head thrown back. The sense of humor of Heller is commendable. So much so that all the confusion regarding the plot doesn’t even seem like a problem. The best part is, after finishing the book, these are also addressed, in a way as if they never even existed.

                Apart from this, the book gives an insight into the lives of soldiers, during war or even peace for that matter. How they long to be home, but are duty bound (rather, 'catch' bound, which is another intelligent thing about the book). Then there is a chaplain who misses his family and is always scared something wrong might happen to them. Equally adorable is the comradeship among these soldiers and how they become each other’s families.

                This novel on war, is actually a satire on it. And the line “Anything worth dying for is certainly worth living for” aptly sums it up.

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My favorite lines from the book:

“He was working hard at increasing his life span. He did it by cultivating boredom.”

“Only a fifth of a second before you were a small kid with a ten-week summer vacation that lasted a hundred thousand years and still ended too soon.”

“He knew everything about literature except how to enjoy it”

“The real trick lies in losing wars, in knowing which wars can be lost.”

“What state were you born in” “In the state of innocence.”