"Insanity is contagious."

Like so many other works of originally absurd or dystopian character, this classic catches up with reality faster than I can process. When I first shared Yossarian's frustration over the perfect catch, I did so in a quite abstract way, enjoying the intellectual game the novel kept me engaged in.

Now I find myself frequently thinking of his pain as something I experience myself, every day, reading news and listening to the authorities that are in charge to rule the world. If you want to succeed against the insanity of populist ruthlessness and to restore liberal values and democratic processes, you have to adopt the insane leaders' weapons, and turn yourself into a demagogue playing to the stupidity and insanity of the indoctrinated, thoughtless masses. But then, of course, you do not represent liberal values and democratic processes anymore, you turn into the monster you fight.

When Yossarian realised that he could only escape the threat to his life (the active participation in the war) if he was declared insane, and that expressing the wish to escape the threat to his life showed he was in fact sane, he knew he was in the clutches of insane authorities (which ironically therefore were safe from dying in the war for which they were responsible!). They were keeping their numbing power over him as long as he was sane enough to resist, and human enough to have a character:

"It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character."

As a novel showing the absurdity of war and of nationalism on an individual level, while keeping a (bittersweet) sense of humour, this labyrinth of a tale has no peer:

"The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them."

So here is my catch, let's call it the catch 42 - the catch that kicks in whenever we try to find the Answer to Life, The Universe and Everything. If all insane leaders of the world read this book, they would understand the meaninglessness of their destructive power play, and they would change their ways and the world would finally be a safe place. The catch is that they have to be sane to read it.

So, read it if you are sane enough to understand it. It will drive you crazy though.

Catch-22 is definitely not the easiest read.
I really struggled with it being non-chronological and the the amount of characters. Part of the reason I struggled was because of my lack of knowledge of armies/war.

HoweverI did enjoy the absurdity of it as well as the dark humour and felt that many parts of the novel were genius.

I read this book years ago, and now I am bringing this review to Goodreads.

Where do I begin?

This is a difficult book to penetrate. Heller is kind of nuts. Okay, I began somewhere. His intention, I believe is to illustrate the absurdism of the war, as this one was written at the time of the Vietnam war. He writes about the daily life of the soldiers of the U.S. Army. Within the book is a passage that tells us about the meaning of Catch-22:

"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.

"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.

"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed."

The cast of characters is insane, and there are so many how does one keep count. But you know what, most think this is the finest novel of the 20th century.

Although it garnered no awards, it has remained consistently in print, and has sold millions of copies since its publication in 1961. It obviously was made in to a successful 1970 movie.

It is quirky, and classic, and nuts. And to be honest, I'm still not sure I get it.

4,5*

Sorprendido por una propuesta tan arriesgada, novedosa y transgresora. El prota Yossarian pasa al top de mis personajes de ficción favoritos, vaya tipo...

¿De qué habla la novela? Por momentos es pura comedia del absurdo al más puro estilo Ionesco o el propio Beckett: conversaciones tan graciosas como ridículas, pero indudablemente con un fin último: ridiculizar la guerra y a los oficiales militares que la fomentan e idolatran, apropiándose conceptos tales como patria, deber, el colectivo por encima de la vida propia, etc.

"-El comandante Coverley es una persona noble y maravillosa, y todo el mundo lo admira.
- Es un viejo imbecil, que no tiene derecho a actuar como un joven imbécil, ¿dónde está?¿muerto?
-Nadie lo sabe, ha desaparecido.
- ¿Lo ve? Imagínese lo que es un hombre de su edad arriesgando la poca vida que le queda por algo tan absurdo como una patria"

¿Cuál es el gran aporte de J. Heller? La irreverencia total, la falta de vergüenza, ese absurdo al que aludía antes que curiosamente empasta tan bien con la profundidad y seriedad del mundo militar. Por momentos tiene toques también de la comedia de enredo, situaciones disparatadas, ridículas. 

Novelas antibélicas hay muchas, pero si algo distingue a Catch-22 es lo temprano de la crítica a la guerra desde el humor loco y por momentos surrealista. Con la guerra de Vietnam casi nació un género, humor, humor ácido, más serio...pero a poco de terminar la II GM es muy innovadora esta novela.

Crítica feroz a la guerra, a los mandos militares donde prima la casta del escalafón de mando inútil, prepotente, que desprecia las buenas ideas de los mandos inferiores y en especial desprecia al culto o al inteligente.

Catch-22, Joseph Heller

Catch-22 is a satirical novel by American author Joseph Heller.

He began writing it in 1953; the novel was first published in 1961.

Often cited as one of the most significant novels of the twentieth century, it uses a distinctive non-chronological third-person omniscient narration, describing events from the points of view of different characters.

The separate story lines are out of sequence so the timeline develops along with the plot.

عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «کلک مرغابی»؛ «تبصره 22»؛ نویسنده: جوزف هلر؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز سیزدهم ماه آگوست سال2001میلادی

عنوان: کلک مرغابی؛ نویسنده: جوزف هلر؛ مترجم: کامبیز پاک فر؛ تهران، مرجان، 1378؛ دو جلد در یک مجلد؛ در 806ص؛ شابک9649049304؛ موضوع: جنگ جهانی دوم از نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20م

عنوان: تبصره 22؛ نویسنده: جوزف هلر؛ مترجم: حسن افشار؛ تهران، ماهی، 1393؛ در 552ص؛ شابک 9789642092000؛

عنوان: تبصره 22؛ نویسنده: جوزف هلر؛ مترجم: احسان نوروزی؛ تهران، چشمه، 1394؛ در 518ص؛ شابک: 9786002295613؛

اونا می‌خوان منو بکشن.؛
هیچ‌کس نمی‌خواد تو رو بکشه.؛
پس چرا به طرفم تیراندازی می‌کنن؟
اونا می‌خوان همه رو بکشن.؛
خب چه فرقی می‌کنه؟
پیدا کردن تکه ای که بتواند گوشه‌ ای از منطق رمان «تبصره 22» باشد، کار ناممکن یا دشواری است، شاید گفتگوی بالا نزدیک‌ترین بخش داستان به این انتظار باشد؛ «یوسارین»، افسر نیروی هوایی «آمریکا»، تصمیم گرفته، دیگر جانش را به خطر نیندازد، و پرواز نکند، چون احساس می‌کند ضدهوایی‌های دشمن قصد دارند او را بکشند؛ اما همکارش اینگونه نمی‌اندیشد، چون باور دارد سربازان دشمن قصد دارند همه را بکشند؛ این درست همان‌جایی است، که کشمکش اصلی داستان «تبصره 22» شکل می‌گیرد؛ «یوسارین» دیگر به جنگ، به چشم یک رخداد اجتماعی نگاه نمی‌کند، بلکه جنگ برای او مسئله‌ ای کاملا فردی است؛ طبعا اگر همه آدم‌های متخاصم در دو طرف یک جنگ، می‌توانستند مثل «یوسارین» جنگ را فردی ببینند، هیچ جنگی آن‌قدرها پا نمی‌گرفت؛ و به کشتار نمیانجامید؛

ذات جنگ، اساسا بر ایده ی گذشتن از فرد، و قرار گرفتن در خدمت یک اجتماع، یا یک ایده و باور، استوار است؛ ترفند اصلی «جوزف هلر»، نگارنده، برای زیر پرسش بردن برهان جنگ، همان بازگشت به فردیت کسانی است، که قرار است سربازان جنگ باشند؛ مسئله باورهای فردی، در برابر اجتماع جنگ‌جو، نقطه مرکزی رمان «هلر» است، که در همه جای رمان جاری شده، و به فرم آن نیز نشت کرده است؛ فرمی که منتقدان بسیاری، این نگارش را نپسندیده اند؛ اما این نیز هست که رمان «تبصره‌‌ ی 22» اثر «جوزف هلر» را، به همراه «برهنه‌ ها و مرده‌ ها» اثر «نورمن میلر»، و «سلاخ‌ خانه‌ ی شماره پنج» اثر «کورت ونه‌ گات»؛ یکی از سه اثر ادبیات ضد جنگ «آمریکا» بنوشته اند

نویسندگان هر سه رمان، به نوعی در رخدادهای جنگ جهانگیر دوم، شرکت داشته‌، و جنگ را از نزدیک تجربه کرده‌ اند؛ «جوزف هِلـِر» که فرزند خانواده‌ ای مهاجر، از «یهودیان روس‌ تبار» بودند، در سال 1942میلادی در سن نوزده سالگی، به ارتش «آمریکا» پیوستند، و در سال‌های پایانی جنگ، به عنوان بمب‌ انداز هواپیماهای «بی‌.52»؛ در شصت ماموریت جنگی شرکت کردند (در هواپیماهای آن دوره خلبانی، ناوبری و مسیریابی، و هدف‌یابی برای انداختن بمب؛ هر یک مسئول جداگانه‌ داشت)؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 16/06/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 24/05/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

I initially gave this book 4 stars based on my memory of having read it something like 40 years ago, which remained a pretty vivid memory, actually, in that I recalled the story and tone of the book in my re-reading of it, but this time through I liked it even better, found it crazy and darkly hilarious, increasingly dark and absurd and centered on Catch 22 as absurd cosmic comi-tragic joke. Devastatingly sad as the absurdity turns darker. This is a big, messy, crazy, wonderful, amazing book, one of the great anti-war novels of all time. Hell, it is one of the great novels of all time! Modern library lists it as #7 in the 100 best novels of the twentieth century. Most 20th century lists have it near the top, and rereading it, I am sure they are right. So you like a good war? Find it bracing to get a whiff of napalm in the morning? Read this book or any other book about war, please.

Years ago, while I was (unsuccessfully) searching for a job in the Middle East, I met a career consultant.

"How do I land a job in the Middle East?" I asked.

"Well, for that you need experience," he told me, scratching his chin.

"But I have eighteen years of experience!" I protested.

"That may be so," he said. "What I meant was - you need Gulf experience."

"But I can't get that unless I get a job in the Gulf," I pointed out.

"Yes, I know." He said serenely. "You see, that's the catch..."

Kết thúc một tuần Tết tung tăng khắp Hà Nội thì tôi cũng đọc xong Bẫy 22. Đã đọc nguyên tác cách đây chục năm, lần đọc lại này qua bản tiếng Việt giúp tôi nhìn thấy một số điểm chưa nhìn thấy trong lần đọc trước. Tôi thấy trong Catch 22 có tinh thần của 1984 ở những trường đoạn châm biếm toàn trị trong chiến tranh, chẳng hạn đọan buộc tội cha tuyên uý, hay đoạn dọa đưa Yossarian ra toà án binh. Tôi thấy hình ảnh của Zorba tay chơi Hy Lạp ở lão già đối đáp với Nately, bài bác tinh thần dân tộc. Tôi thấy Kafka ở nhiều nơi. Trên hết, đây là cuốn tiểu thuyết cấu thành bằng phi lý, để nói lên bản chất phi lý của chiến tranh. Và nếu cần một thông điệp thì đây: Chiến tranh chỉ có lợi cho bọn con buôn.

For so many of us growing up in the USA, our high school teachers assigned us Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" as required reading, and I was among those assignees. I'm not sure why the requirement, other than perhaps some Catch-22 type of logic that everyone else was assigning it, so there, must be great, must read. I don't particularly remember liking the novel then, perhaps with no more substantial of a reason than -- just not my style. Reading the novel now, in midlife, my opinion (or my literary style) has changed little, but today, I can attempt to add to "not my style" perhaps a few deeper insights.

In this second read, I realize what so fails to appeal to me is Heller's slapstick, absurdist, repetitive and dizzyingly circular style of storytelling. At the same time, I fully realize this is also the appeal of the novel for many: it's absurdity. Indeed, time has tested Heller's topic of war having little logic or reason in the real world, mostly born of individual and governmental insanity, power plays and mere whim, male ego clashing and chest thumping. Few wars seem to have good reason for happening when one considers all the other possibilities of resolution. While leaders sit safely in secure offices on fortressed hilltops, the common soldier takes all the risks, offers up his/her body for battering, endures indescribable torments in battle, and often gives the ultimate sacrifice of life. Shall we debate the virtues of boxing rings for political leaders instead? Yes, war is absurd. And Heller captures this "crazy-making" truth in a crazy-making novel in which characters dance to illogical commands, spin in frustration, and dig themselves in ever deeper as they try harder and harder to dig themselves out. You know... as in war.

So I slogged through the pages like a good soldier. Characters leapt forward and backward in time, one event led to no other event, resolution rarely made a showing, and the dance of insanity kept the main lead. Even as I slogged, I could not deny what an excellent reflection of warring reality Heller's writing proved to be. Kudos for that. Redeeming factor.

And then, somewhere towards the final pages, I was somewhat won over. Without losing his voice of absurdity, the author had Yossarian, key player, say lines so absurd they rang true to the core, e.g. "but we don't want what we want!" and I could only shake my head and echo, oh indeed. We don't. When offered a bounty of temptations to sell out his soul, Yossarian denied them all, and in his crazy way, spoke utter sanity. How common is it to want something desperately much of our lives, only to realize we don't want it at all when fantasy turns into reality? A gold star for the author. Other episodes of Yossarian struggling to keep a fellow soldier alive even as his guts spill out, the sheer horror and despair and helplessness of the situation, hit target. Bravo.

This, and Heller's commentaries on man being little more than meat, fodder for the brutalities of war, resounded with such painful truth that today's reader can only look up at current events and current disasters and realize -- we are living in a world ruled by absurdities even today. History has taught us nothing.

And so, I could be convinced that Heller's novel is a classic. Perhaps it is.

This book is so true, it's ridiculous. This book is so false, it's maddening.
Yossarian, our unlikely hero along with his fellow bedmates in a military hospital and later with his platoon , lives amidst shelling, explosions, flying body parts and one very bonkers mess cook. He's an escapist, a realist, a leader and in cases even a pervert turned wannabe saviour. He is mad and then logical, depraved and then conscientious;but all throughout you shall love him.
Catch22 is ingenious, hilarious; even though at times it can be bound to repetitive. Of course, some are bound to be exasperated by the way the entire book seems to be a testament to the different ways Heller can make use of the phrase 'catch - 22' but persevere and you shall be rewarded with complex and dazzling characters and an utterly ridiculous, gruesome and novel plot!
No wonder it made the BBC 100 booklist challenge!

From cleaning my TBR project. Not my type of humour, I guess. Tried to read it a few times and I think is time to let go of this classic. It is too long to battle through it.

t”You mean there’s a catch?”

“Sure there’s a catch, “ Doc Daneeka replied. “Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn’t really crazy.”

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn’t, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn’t have to; but if he didn’t want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.

“That’s some catch, that Catch-22,” He observed.

“It’s the best there is,” Doc Daneeka agreed.

n  n

Originally Catch-22 was Catch-18, but because Leon Uris was publishing a novel called Mila-18 that same year Joseph Heller’s agent decided the title needed to be changed so as to not confuse the book buying public. Also given that 22 is a double 11 they liked the way it represented the many déjà vu moments that occur in the book. The East Coast publishing intelligentsia really embraced the book even though there were doubts if it would ever gain traction with the American public.

It did.

I understand the frustration that publishers feel with the American book buying public. They have all been scorched by a book they felt should have sold by the wheelbarrow only to have it crash and burn with the majority of the first printing sold off to a remainder company. Sometimes a book needs a lightning strike in the form of Oprah or a school banning the book (thank-you Strongsville, OH), but for Heller all he needed was the 1960s.

The book is set during WWII, the last good war according to everyone from Tom Brokaw to the school janitor at Phillipsburg High School. Fat novels glorifying the war, some extraordinarily good, were hitting bookstores at a fast clip from the late 1940s on. By the time Catch-22 came out in 1961 the world had changed. So those people who bought this book who thought they were in for another “weren’t we great” novel about World War Two were in for a shock. A typical reaction was:

WTF????

Some thought it was irreverent, but there were a growing group of people who thought it was among the best American novels they had ever read. Both reactions helped juice the novel and sales began to climb.

n  n
Joseph Heller in uniform.

At the tender age of 19 in 1942 Joseph Heller joined the U.S. Army Air Corp. By 1944 he found himself on the Italian Front as a B-25 Bombardier. He flew 60 missions most of which he categorized as milk runs; these were flight missions that encounter no or very little anti-aircraft artillery or enemy fighters. Heller admits that his disillusionment with the war in Korea colored the novel. It gives me the shakes to think how different the novel would be if he had published the book in 1951 instead of 1961. Little did he know how prophetic his novel would be regarding the Vietnam War.

Yossarian has reached the end of his rope. He has flown the required number of combat missions several times, but each time Colonel Cathcart keeps raising the number of missions required to go home. A similar circumstance plagued Hawkeye Pierce and his fellow doctors in the Korean War based TV series M*A*S*H. The pressure of thousands of people he doesn’t even know and hundreds he does know trying to kill him is just too much for him to bear. As he becomes more and more insane(sane) he becomes more and more qualified to fly combat missions as far as the military is concerned. He comes up with various ailments to keep him in the hospital. He shows up to receive his war medal naked except for a pair of moccasins. He finally refuses to fly any more missions and begins parading around the camp walking backwards. This does start to foment rebellion among his fellow flyers and drives Colonel Cathcart to distraction.

”Morale was deteriorating and it was all Yossarian’s fault. The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.”

Heller surrounds Yossarian with a wonderful cast of detailed characters of which I will only be able to mention a few.

Lieutenant Nately is one of Yossarian’s best friends, a trust fund baby with red, white, and blue blood running through his veins. He is a good looking kid and could have any woman he wanted, but he falls in love with an Italian prostitute who begrudgingly sleeps with him when he pays for sex with her, but would rather he just disappeared. He has this great discussion with her “107” year old pimp.

”Italy is one of the least prosperous nations on earth. And the Italian fighting man is probably second to all. And that’s exactly why my country is doing so well in this war while your country is doing so poorly.”

Nately guffawed with surprise...”But Italy was occupied by the Germans and is now being occupied by us. You don’t call that doing very well, do you?”

“But of course I do.” exclaimed the old man cheerfully. “The Germans are being driven out, and we are still here. In a few years you will be gone, too, and we will still be here. You see, Italy is really a very poor and weak country, and that’s what makes us so strong. Italian soldiers are not dying any more. But American and German soldiers are. I call that doing extremely well.”

Nately continues to be the straight man for the old man as they discuss the absurdity of risking one’s life for their country.

t”There is nothing so absurd about risking your life for your country.” he (Nately) declared.
“Isn’t there?”asked the old man. “What is a country? A country is a piece of land surrounded on all sides by boundaries, usually unnatural. Englishmen are dying for England, Americans are dying for America, Germans are dying for Germany, Russians are dying for Russia. There are now fifty or sixty countries fighting in this war. Surely so many countries can’t all be worth dying for.”

“Anything worth living for,” said Nately, “is worth dying for.”

“And anything worth dying for,” answered the sacrilegious old man. “is certainly worth living for.”

Milo Minderbinder is in charge of the mess at the U.S. Army Corps base. As he learns more and more about how goods are moved around the globe he begins a business of supply and demand (war profiteering). He becomes the ultimate capitalist with no allegiance to any country. He trades with the enemy and as part of contract negotiations he also warns the Germans once of an impending attack even to the point of guiding anti-artillery against American planes and in another case bombs his own base to fulfill another contract. The absurdity of his position is that he is too important to the American high command to get in trouble for any of these acts of treason. He tries to explain one of his more successful schemes to Yossarian.

t”I don’t understand why you buy eggs for seven cents apiece in Malta and sell them for five cents.”

“I do it to make a profit.”

“But how can you make a profit? You lose two cents an egg.”

“But I make a profit of three and a quarter cents an egg by selling them for four and a quarter cents an egg to the people in Malta I buy them from for seven cents an egg. Of course, I don’t make the profit. the syndicate makes the profit. And everybody has a share.”

Yossarian felt he was beginning to understand. “And the people you sell the eggs to at four anda quarter cents a piece make a profit of two and three quarter cents apiece when they sell them back to you at seven cents apiece. Is that right? Why don’t you sell the eggs directly to you and eliminate the people you buy them from?”

“Because I’m the people I buy them from.” Milo explained. “I make a profit of three and a quarter cents apiece when I sell them to me and a profit of two and three quarter cents apiece when I buy them back from me. That’s a total profit of six cents and egg. I lose only two cents an egg when I sell them to the mess halls at five cents apiece, and that’s how I can make a profit buying eggs for seven cents apiece and selling them for five cents apiece.

Hungry Joe keeps meeting the flight standards time and time again only to have his paperwork take too long to process before the flight standards have been raised again. He packs and then he unpacks. He is a fat, pervert who convinces women to take their clothes off to be photographed by telling them that he works for Life Magazine and will put them on the cover. Unfortunately the photographs never turn out. Ironically he did work as a photographer for Life Magazine before the war.

Women do play a role in this book mostly as objects of lust. Heller has these wonderful, creative descriptions of them.

”She would have been perfect for Yossarian, a debauched, coarse, vulgar, amoral, appetizing slattern whom he had longed for and idolized for months. She was a real find. She paid for her own drinks, and she had an automobile, an apartment and a salmon-colored cameo ring that drove Hungry Joe clean out of his senses with its exquisitely carved figures of a naked boy and girl on a rock.”

And then there is a nurse that brings Yossarian nearly to his knees with desire.

”Yossarian was sick with lust and mesmerized with regret. General Dreedle’s nurse was only a little chubby, and his senses were stuffed to congestion with the yellow radiance of her hair and the unfelt pressure of her soft short fingers, with the rounded untasted wealth of her nubile breast in her Army-pink shirt that was opened wide at the the throat and with the rolling, ripened triangular confluences of her belly and thighs in her tight, slick forest-green garbardine officer’s pants. He drank her in insatiably from head to painted toenail. He never wanted to lose her. ‘Ooooooooooooh,’ he moaned again, and this time the whole room rippled at his quavering, drown-out cry.”.

You will probably need to google the next one.

”He enjoyed Nurse Sue Ann Druckett’s long white legs and supple, callipygous ass.”

Paradoxes abound even when Heller describes a character he will have countering characteristics like she was plain, but pretty or he was handsome, but ugly. Aren’t we all a sum of those characteristics anyway?

n  n
Joseph Heller looking handsome and ugly.

This book is hilarious, (I laughed out loud at several points.)but wrapped with increasingly more tragic circumstances. As Yossarian’s friends die or disappear his desperation increases. His behavior becomes more and more erratic. The absurd traps him time and time again. There are a whole host of reasons why everyone should read this novel. I’m not saying that everyone will like it as much as I did, but it is IMHO one of the top five most important American novels ever written. It impacted our culture, added words to our language, and gave voice to a generation of people dissatisfied with the war aims of this country. More importantly don’t be the one person in the middle of a Catch-22 discussion who hasn’t read the book.

If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at: https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten