Yossarian is a man on the edge. Or so he'd have you think. Set during the tail end of World War II, Catch-22 trails the lives of an Air Force squadron posted on Pianosa, and fully details the anger, dehumanisation and insanity of war with a satire bite.
Joseph Heller really is a master of satire. This book is equal parts emphatic, hilarious, tragic and rage inducing, both for content and style. I totally get why people love it, hold it up in esteem, but I found it a very frustrating read - repetitive and too long, and some of the best lines of dialogue I've ever read weighed down by heavy exposition. So I guess my feelings are mixed at best. I kind of wanted to get them on paper before I talk about it in my bookclub tonight, because I know for a fact that the two people coming despise the sucker and, while I didn't, I can really see why they did. It's a little too self-aware, a little too long (or a lot too long), and tends to talk around things instead of about them. I liked Yossarian though, and Nately and even Minderbinder and Doc Daneeka, enjoyed my time with them, even if I frequently found myself frustrated by them. Then again, that's mostly the point of Catch-22, exploring the futility, the anguish, the frustration and, well, the catch of it.
3 out of 5 false ailments.
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