Catch-22

I finished another book form my "Classics" list: "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller. First published in 1961, this book is an odd duck. A total satire that had me vacillating between outright guffaws (yes, I guffaw and I have a hearty guffaw at that) to rolls of the eyes and despair at wanting to finish this book already.

To say that this book mocks American Military is to say that you think Starbucks might be a coffee company. It is set in Italy in WWII and follows an American bomber squadron. The characters are down-right ridiculous. I mean, RIDICULOUS. I get trying to be funny. I don't get trying SO hard that it is beyond funny and downright dumb.

I will say that Heller is very good at bringing things around. Things that made NO sense at the beginning....well, made no sense at the end really, but you got to see one instance, from several people's perspectives. The story is told from several character's pov. Heller's very good at showing you a peek of something that you will have no idea what it means, until chapters later, when he pops it back it unexpectedly. The dead guy in Yossarian's tent. Milo buying Egyptian cotton and not being able to dump it......only to have Milo try and feed a naked-in-a-tree Yossarian a chocolate-covered cotton ball chapters later had me in tears laughing. Heller's clever, but I could not get past the utter stupidity of everyone in charge of the military. It was beyond ridiculous.

There were some very poignant scenes; Kid Sampson at the beach and McWatt's despair at what happened saddened me. Nately's death, jotted down in 3 words, showed the futility of war.

Yossarian. Critics love Yossarian. I am ok with him. I don't love him. He is trying desperately to get out of an Army where the Colonel in charge keeps raising the missions to impress a General who could care less. All the other squadrons go home at 25 missions. Yossarian's squadron is at 80 and counting, all because an idiotic Colonel is hoping for a "feather in his cap" from the General. Yossarian was probably the only one who saw how insane everyone was. He's forever trying to find a way to get sent home and gets foiled at every turn. Sadly, I don't feel the need to read the sequel to this book to see how Yossarian fared. Did Nately's whore finally kill him? I don't care that much to find out.