CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller - war is hell, very black humor, insanity, escape

The Central Market Book Club is affilated with Great Books founded by Mortimer Adler in 1952. Never more than last night (September 14, 2009) did our group reflect that affiliation with our discussion of CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller. It was my third time to read the book with the first time being 40 years (or so) ago and the second time being last year when it was discussed by Montrose Great Books. I remembered a fair amount of the story this time allowing me to focus more on details that I had been fuzzy about before. My enjoyment level was even better the third time, a classic indication that a book is truly a Great Book (uppercase "G" and "B").

Scott led the discussion of fourteen attendees beginning with some brief biographical information about the author, Joseph Heller including the fact that it took him eight or nine years to write CATCH-22. The story is basically about American servicemen during the latter part of World War II. Scott's opening question to the group was one asking us what we thought about how the story unfolded. There were quite a few comments about the "time regression" in the story which caused me to be confused and as I said in the group, if confusion is obvious when reading a book, then in my experience, it is confusion that the author intends us to feel. There was no resolution about why the author chose to be so "non-linear" though I remember someone remarking that the confusion we felt was to help us relate to the confusion that Yossarian, the protagonist felt in such a chaotic world.

A question was asked about the numerous repetitions of various vignettes, or events, or visual cues. Someone said they thought this plot device of using so many repetitions was related to the insanity of the characters. And also, that the time regression which actually seemed circular in many cases reflected the circular nature of a catch-22, which is basically a no-win situation as it is known today.

In the book, "catch-22" primarily though not totally focuses on Yossarian wanting to be grounded and not allowed to fly any more missions. Being crazy is a criteria for being grounded but since Yossarian was sane enough to want to be grounded then that meant he wasn't crazy afterall resulting in him being required to fly more missions, as many as Colonel Catchcart required.

And the number of missions required before a serviceman can go home on leave kept increasing every week, in some cases every day or every hour. Which was crazy but only Yossarian seemed to be willing to seriously complain.

It was clear to me that if you are someone who only enjoys stories that are linear with a protagonist and antagonist(s) who are relatively normal, you will not enjoy this book. Checking the web for reviews, I found many social network literature forums where comments were very negative. Since this was one of the best books I've ever read in my life, it is hard for me to believe there are those who disagree so vehemently but ..so it goes.. As we went around the circle at the end of our discussion as we normally do, there were those in our group as well who were not as enthralled with this book as I was. But I didn't hear anyone express actual dislike. But sometimes people reserve their opinions more than I seem to be able to do.

The book starts with a chapter titled THE TEXAN corresponding to a "good-natured, generous and likable" character who joined the hospital ward where Yossarian and his buddy Dunbar were staying after being admitted because of false complaints they conjured up. The chapter includes the comment: "In three days no one could stand him." There were comments in the discussion that Yossarian was crazy because he said so many opposite things like this. I commented that I thought that this device of "opposite comments" was used by many of the characters, not just Yossarian. This story was about the insane world of the military and therefore, the author took every opportunity to illustrate craziness that he could. Most (or maybe all) of the characters at one time or another called all of the other characters "crazy" or "insane" on nearly every page. And if they weren't calling others "crazy", they were describing crazy behaviour or they themselves were acting crazy.

As we were talking about the character of Yossarian, one attendee in our group who had been in the Air Force, flown and was shot at shared that he had the same experience that Yossarian had when he was shot at, that he took it personal. He said he got angry about the person in the plane shooting at him who didn't even know him. It was amazing to me how this compared so well with how the author describes Yossarian's experience.

The character of the Chaplain was introduced into our discussion as second most important to Yossarian. Some thought there might be some kind of "yin and yang" set up between Yossarian and Chaplain. Both characters are caught up in the war in a very negative way and both have lots of self-doubt. The book starts with both Yossarian and the Chaplain and it ends with both characters as well after they have changed their personalities and have learned how to survive more effectively. Some in the group reminded us of how the chaplain did in fact speak up about the requirement for flying missions as being too severe, that he wasn't a total coward that some mentioned. And that he, like Yossarian, was a bit of a recluse, living in a tent away from the base camp just as Yossarian lived in a tent without a roommate and was very resentful when he lost his privacy to new roommates after his old roommate, Orr was lost on a mission.

The most difficult part of the discussion was covering all the topics of the book or even most of them. The book was very dense and somewhat long at four hundred fifty pages. But we did the best we could. It is never possible to cover a book entirely.

We talked about Doc Daneeka who was declared "dead" because of a screwup in the Air Force bureaucracy and as a result, he couldn't communicate with his wife and she couldn't communicate with him. Though this was very comical, it was also part of the process of the author making the humor darker and darker. As we got to know the characters better, the comical disasters seemed more tragic and not as funny. Also, it wasn't simply a process of the reader getting more involved in the book, the author was intentionally allowing the reader to see the tragedy of events and not just the comedy as most of us agreed in our discussion.

Other topics we discussed were:

• the character of Milo Minderbinder who made a contract with the Germans to bomb his own squadron and was forgiven by his commanding officers because of all the profit he made. Some one in our group commented that the character of Milo was very believable if you know people like that. (and everyone laughed.)
• the changes Yossarian went through and the changes the reader was allowed to see gradually such as the death of Snowden and its effect on Yossarian. The event surrounding Snowden's death as it gradually was told played a very major roll in Yossarian becoming less passive with respect to following orders from his commanding officers, IMO
• the mission of Ferrara where the character Kraft is killed, after which Yossarian received a medal but he admits he stopped being brave
• the mission of Avignon where Snowden is killed and Yossarian explains to the reader that he "lost his nerve"
• some of the examples of Yossarian's decency even in light of a military that was "trying to kill him" such as his attempt to find Nately's Whore's sister who was only twelve years old and lost in Rome and in serious danger of not being able to survive (he didn't find her which was more of the dark part of the story the author keeps revealing to us
• the question of whether Yossarian was "normal"
• the women in his life such as Lucianna and Nurse Duckett revealing a more tender side
• ridiculous orders from Air Force leadership such as using a "tight bombing pattern" only because it photographs well and not because it might be a more effective wartime tactic
• character of Colonel Scheisskop who thought marching was the only important activity and he ended up being the top man in charge (not saying much for leadership)
• the numerous experiences of Yossarian in the hospital
• McWatt, the young reckless pilot who killed another character named Kid Sampson in a very gruesome manner by flying too low with his plane
• Yossarian's walk in Rome and how credible were his experiences; someone commented "by that point in the book, nothing is unbelievable" though others thought he was halucinating
• the "magical realism" of Nately's whore and how she trys to kill Yossarian and how she manages to be in so many places - seemed unreal and dark but still very funny at the same time
• final resolution of Yosarian's dilemma (no spoilers here)

Normally in my writeups about our discussion, I try to list all the topics here even if I don't go into our comments very much on the topics but in this case, there were so many more, I will stop here and say once again that the book was very "dense". It was hard to do it justice in one discussion.

One last note about my own understanding of the book includes my epiphany when I realized how many platitudes were used in the story. Usually on every page. So many such as:

• "..should care what people think.."
• "..Appearance is more imporant than what's inside.."
• "..some of my best friends are enlisted men.."
• "..Trust in God.."
• "..go to Russia (if you're not happy).."
• "..There's a war going on.."
• "..always done it that way.."
• "..what's good for the syndicate is good for the country.."
• "..everybody has a share.."
• "..remember your mission.."
• "..almost as good as new.."
• "..risking your life for your country.."
• "..patriotism.."
• "..better to die on ones feet than to live on ones knees.." (said by the old man, maybe shouldn't be in this list since I believe it's true)
• "..old money is better than new money.."
• "..getting everything you buy for nothing.."
• "..when is policy of American Govt to confiscate property of citizens?" (said in outrage by Milo)
• "..bomb for your country.."

In most cases, these platitudes were used by someone trying to convince Yossarian or the Chaplain that they shouldn't be sane, that they should join the other crazies in the story for some superficial reason as given in the particular platitude being used at the time. It would not be illogical in my opinion to speculate that the author wrote the story using a collection of such platitudes as the foundation especially considering his background at a small advertising agency before he was first published,

Looking forward to our next discussion on October 12 at Houston Central Market in the community room upstairs. We'll be discussing THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford. For more info about the Central Market Book Club check out our web page at http://www.houstonbookclubs.org/CentralMarket/.