'Catch-22' by Joseph Heller

Catch-22, Joseph Heller (3.0)

Unfortunately this was another divisive choice for book club.  The good news is that we all wanted to ‘experience’ this book.  Sadly, the experience was painful for some of us. As Mr. Heller mentions in his afterword, throughout the years this book has had rabid fans and strong detractors.  The story is set in WWII and was described accurately by V. as a series of corny jokes told by an annoying Uncle who won’t stop.  The main character desperately wants to leave the war before he is killed.  He tries many techniques, but runs up against multiple catches (all oddly named ‘Catch #22’), such as ‘anyone who wants to get out of combat duty by being crazy isn’t really crazy’.  That type of double-speak is the main style of prose throughout the book. With a large number of characters and a time-jumping plot, it was difficult to feel amity with any specific character. Despite the frustration of getting through the Dr. Seuss-like language, we agreed that, for it’s time, it was a groundbreaking look at the absurdities of war.