I finally got around to reading Catch-22. It tells the story of Yossarian, the beleaguered, malingering bombardier serving in a B-25 Squadron, the "Fighting 256th" (or the "Two to the Fighting Eighth Power") in WWII in Italy.
The book, written by Joseph Heller, is a satirical look at War, the Military, Bureaucracy, the nonsensical and absurd rules and regulations that exist in Bureaucracies and the suffering said rules cause.
Yossarian tries to get grounded to get out of flying missions, because his megalomanical Group Commander, Colonel Cathcart, continues to raise the number of missions his men must fly before they can rotate home. Cathcart does this to garner himself more accolades (for having the unit with the men that have flown the most missions) and increase his chances of becoming a General and getting his name and picture in the Saturday Evening Post. Whereas men in other units rotate home after 25 missions, Cathcart raises the missions to 35, then 40, 55, and even higher. He has little to no concern for the men flying the missions and he himself has only flown two missions, (one by accident).
Yossarian is trapped by an obscure rule that is the book's title: Catch-22. A flyer can be grounded if he is insane. To continually fly missions in the face of flak and enemy fire, one MUST be insane and all he has to be grounded is ask. However, the act of asking to be grounded constitutes concern for one's well-being, which is the mark of a sane man, so he cannot be grounded and must fly more missions. It's perfect in its simplicity and use of paradoxical, circular logic.
The book is about Yossarian's adventure in the war, both participating in it and trying to get out of it. It is scathingly critical of bureaucracy, especially the military bureaucracy, and of war itself.
It is written in a fragmented "flashback" style and Heller makes use of paradoxical dialogue and absurd logic for humor. Many story elements are also told from multiple perspectives as the novel goes on, so one often doesn't get a complete understanding of early events until the end. For this reason, along with a MASSIVE cast of characters, some consider the book hard to follow and nonsensical. Admittedly, for folks who don't like complex things and like movies or books to "spoonfeed" them, this book will not be enjoyable, but for those wired right, it is a delightful, yet occasionally dark romp that will make you laugh out loud at the weirdness and insanity of life and war. The complexity also means that re-reads will unearth more levels and subtleties in the novel, keeping things "fresh" and allowing it to be returned to many times.
For those serving, this book is DEAD ON in its characterizations of military thought processes, military bureaucracy, senior military officers and should be considered a must read. Those that read deeper into the ideas and characterizations will see a HUGE parallel between the bureaucracy in the book and the modern bureaucracy that is our (US) government. For example, punishing people for perceived crimes because they are an easy target instead of trying to root out the REAL perpetrators (The Chaplain/Washington Irving subplot).
It totally changed the way I see things and solidified my own evolving personal outlooks and philosophies regarding life and what I am doing now.
THE FILM:
The film, made in 1970, stars Alan Arkin as Yossarian and runs about 2 hours, 15 minutes. The film has a GREAT cast who really bring the feel of the book to life. However, as in all book-to-film adaptations, the film leaves a LOT out. The book is so complex as to be unfilmable (unless you want an 8 to 10 hour movie), so many characters, story arcs and deeper sub-plots are totally written out and the story streamlined. Heller approved of the film, even though it is quite different from the book.
It's strong in its own right and some of the dialogue that was altered or added for the film slides in seamlessly. Jon Voight does an excellent turn as the Mess Officer turned War-Profiteer LT Milo Minderbinder, who himself is an allegory for Capitalism, Corporatism and the Military-Industrial Complex.
CONCLUSION:
In the end, I say that this book is quite deserving of its status as a "classic" and is a must read. The film, while not nearly as strong as the book, is still quite good. I would say that to completely enjoy the film, the book MUST be read first, but that's just my opinion.
