A book appearing on many “best novel” lists, this has been drifting around on my bookshelves for years. Seeking an entry for the “should read” category, I started on this in mid-January, thus embarking on a 4-month slog in the truest sense of the word.
Set in a fictional location in the very real WWII Italy, we meet the protagonist Yossarian and his many troop mates. Yossarian, a bombardier, tries repeatedly but unsuccessfully to get discharged from the air force for insanity. These attempts exemplify the titular catch-22 – a fear of death during war can only be the product of a sound mind, hence you cannot be deemed insane for wanting to leave the war because of fear for your life. There are several other instances of this catch throughout, most reflecting the inanities and redundancies of military bureaucracy and decision-making.
The story over the more than 500 pages of the novel takes place over an indeterminate time frame, as it continually loops backwards and forwards such that the exact order and duration of events is obscured (Heller himself was in Italy for just seven months in 1944, which is perhaps a good indication of the novel’s own timeline). There are more than 50 characters, who appear and disappear fluidly and confusingly throughout. Keeping track of who is who, who is still alive, and who has done what is nearly impossible and ultimately pointless.
The “humour” for which this novel is so famous was, for me, entirely absent. This is perhaps the quintessential absurdist novel, a genre with narrow appeal (at least to me) and can become tiresome quickly if the jokes are not landing. It is even worse when the jokes are repeated and repeated, as if the retelling will somehow make the joke funny. It doesn’t. I’ve read a comparison with A Confederacy of Dunces, a book I tried to read last year and gave up in exasperation after a several weeks.
Yossarian is not an admirable or trustworthy narrator. Far from being a hero, his antics and attempts to evade his duties frequently backfire in tragic and destructive ways, for which he takes no responsibility – if they’d send him home, he’d stop causing trouble, so it’s not his fault that others keep dying because of him. While his fear and loathing of war and its degradation and deprivations are understandable and could have been sympathetic, Yossarian is ultimately craven, selfish, and unlikable.
This was not a novel to be enjoyed, but endured for the sake being able to say one has read it. It’s my own catch-22 – I’m glad that I have read it but not glad that I read it.
Fate: little book library, where some other masochist can try reading it.
1 – a book with a murder
9 – made into a film
12 – a book I should read
13 – set somewhere I’ve never been
15 – a number in the title
20 – one-word title
25 – new author to me
rclr 
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