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Catch-22

Joseph Heller

Start date: February 1, 2014

Finish date: March 1, 2014

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Apr 15, 2012 Terri Lynn rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classic-literature, fiction

What can you not like about a classic like Joseph Heller's CATCH-22 that added the phrase Catch-22 to our lexicon? Heller uses humor and more than a little nuttiness in this novel to capture the insanity of war and what it does to people. While the character of Klinger in the long-running tv show MASH paraded around in pantyhose and bras hoping for a section 8 that would enable him to escape the Korean Conflict (it was a war but we don't want to admit it which makes us crazy too), Heller's lead What can you not like about a classic like Joseph Heller's CATCH-22 that added the phrase Catch-22 to our lexicon? Heller uses humor and more than a little nuttiness in this novel to capture the insanity of war and what it does to people. While the character of Klinger in the long-running tv show MASH paraded around in pantyhose and bras hoping for a section 8 that would enable him to escape the Korean Conflict (it was a war but we don't want to admit it which makes us crazy too), Heller's lead character is willing to go to far greater heights to stay alive during World War 2. He would (and did) poison his own guys in his squadron. He would change the targets to some place safer where no one would be shooting back. You get the idea. Anything to stay alive.

The problem is- the Catch-22- is that you are damned if you do and damned if you don't. Want to leave the war? That means you are sane and therefore must stay in but if you are crazy and agree to leave then you must be sane enough to know what you are about and therefore can't. There is no exit so you must do what you can to stay alive and I think that despite the humor Heller injects with what I fondly think of as his "Hellerisms", this is a book that makes me think quite seriously about war and wrap myself around the fears, thoughts and emotions of the combatants who really don't want to be there killing and being killed while those who declare the wars sit safely on their asses far far away having the young men (and now women) go out and kill (or be killed by) another country's young men and women over stupid political issues.

I would suggest that any warmonger in Congress or the presidency of any country should be forced to read this novel but it would do no good. Reading about the fears of others who only seek to remain alive doesn't work without empathy. Therefore I think in the future any leader in any country of the world who is in the capacity of forcing other people's sons and daughters into battle should first read this book and then face the rule that they and their children (male and female) must go on the front lines of the battle using whatever weapons the other side has with no special advantages and be forced to lead the charge and risk their lives and those of their children. Prepare for peace in our lifetime.

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