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Cult Books: Catch-22

What can I say about Catch-22? Well first off, it’s clever. Very clever. This book has one of the most complex, confusing, but ultimately satisfying plot structures of anything that I’ve ever read. The story is told out of sequence from multiple perspectives, with more plot and meaning gradually imparted as the novel progresses – it seems random at first, like an iPod audiobook on shuffle, but that makes sticking with it all the more rewarding. A naked man mentioned offhand in one chapter may not be explained for another hundred pages, but when he is the payoff is all the better due to the build-up from its repeated mentions on previous pages.

Each perspective offers a fresh angle on events, leading to greater understanding, different points of view or even just a really good punchline. This brings up another great thing about this book – it’s hilarious. Honestly, before I read Catch-22 I didn’t realise that literature could be funny, but this book had me cracking up in almost every chapter. The surreal and satirical style is fantastic and often quite pythonesque, but even if that’s not your cup of tea there are some great gags in there. Quite often, the jokes are used to make a serious point, like the ‘Catch-22’ of the title – the circular logic that binds the men to the military (which I won’t ruin here for anyone who hasn’t read the book).

Catch-22 does have a serious side – major themes of sanity, religion, heroism, death, personal integrity, the absurdity and bureaucracy of war and greed are all explored and often skewered within its pages. Take mess officer Milo Minderbinder – his pursuit of profit leads him to run missions (through his business) for the Germans as well as the US military, culminating in a bizarre sequence where he organizes a bombing of his own airbase, resulting in the deaths of many of his colleagues. This black humour continues through the rest of the book, the story becoming noticeably darker as it progresses. The horrors and deaths inherent to war are shown quite starkly, and this is all the more affecting due to the playful style of the book. These characters are ridiculous and funny, yet their deaths are tragic and seem real. This could undo the cheerful nature of the humour, but the narrative does end with a kind of joyful optimism that offers great relief, leaving the reader enriched rather than depressed.

Reading Catch-22 was a turning point for me: it was one of the first books I ever read that was written for adults, having assumed that any kind of sophisticated literature would be boring. If it wasn’t for this book then I wouldn’t have started reading more widely, wouldn’t have applied to do English at Oxford and wouldn’t be writing this article. Honestly, you should read it. Come for the laughs, but stay for the meaning. No catch.

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