A lesson on perseverance: My Review of Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

Catch 22 is a satirical novel written by Joseph Heller and follows the story of Yossarian during the Second World War. Yossarian is a bombardier in the United States Air Force who desperately wants to get out of flying more missions. The problem though is that the Colonel in-charge keeps raising the minimum number of missions before the soldiers can be let off. This forces Yossarian to keep coming up with ways to get out of these missions and these methods are often so incredibly absurd that they are sure to leave the reader in splits.

I finished reading Catch-22 in early June so this review is a long long time coming. I’ve had a form of writer’s block which in my case should more aptly be called laziness and hence haven’t written a review in ages. I request those reading this review to forgive me for forgetting most of the key points of this book but nevertheless a book like Catch-22 isn’t one that is forgotten easily. So what little I do remember I would like you share with you.

Catch-22 is one of those novels that you need to persist with. And I mean really persist with. I think I slept through the first hundred pages or so because I had no clue what in the world was happening in the book. I knew the writer was definitely going for satire but I just couldn’t get it because the characters and situations were both foreign to me. I feel the author definitely missed on building a base for his readers as several people I’ve spoken to have complained about the very same thing. I’ve heard that this a technique that several authors employ but quite frankly I think it sucks. You must be able to engage your readers from the very first page. That being said, it means that about 1/5th of the book wasn’t particularly good but it also means that the rest of the 4/5th or so was great! Sometimes you can forgive the author for a few bad parts if he pulls it as spectacularly as this. I’m very lucky that one of my friends asked me to persist with the book because if I hadn’t I would have missed out on one of the great classics of our time. Now I will pass on the favor and encourage you to read this book as well and if you read it, please persist with it.

The turning point for me was a conversation that Major Major has with his Superiors. The entire chapter was so incredibly funny that suddenly everything fell into place. The kind of humor used was the “illogical argument” type of humor, the kind you can find in books like the Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy. Most of the humor though is satire and is in many ways a critical commentary on the War and the injustices that the soldiers had to face. Some parts are funny and sad at the same time and that I feel is a thing that is not easily achievable. I would definitely recommend this book to people who like to read satire and dark comedy.

My Rating: 3.5/5