It was quite some time ago now that I picked up a perfectly-preserved copy of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 from that ever-giving local secondhand bookstore. I know at least one very loyal reader is very excited for this particular review; he’s a former colleague, and for years we shared an in-joke that we would buy a copy of Heller’s seminal work as a Secret Santa gift for a woman on our team who would constantly refer to difficult circumstances as “Catch-42s”. Yes, we’re horrible, petty people, but in our defense it was really, really funny.
(Here’s the “catch” – if you use an affiliate link on this page, I’ll earn a small commission.)
Joseph Heller began working on Catch-22 in spare moments at his day job in 1953. He worked on it for eight years before finally publishing in 1961. He was the poster child for the uber-precious 20th century white male author, if his introduction is anything to go by. To summarise, he looked back on his masterpiece shortly before his death, stomped his foot, and whined “it didn’t win ANY awards or get on ANY bestseller lists, even though my publisher made some smart people read it and THEY said it was really good! HMPH!“. He was more than a little bitter about the reviews that were less than glowing, even though the book is largely lauded as one of the greatest satirical works of all time. There’s just no pleasing some people…
Catch-22 is set during WWII, between 1942 and 1944. The main character is a bombadier (Heller was also a bombadier during that very period, so apparently he took the whole “write what you know” thing pretty literally). The story follows the life of Captain Yossarian and others in his squadron. They’re all just trying to fulfill or circumvent the requirements of their deployment so they can get the fuck out of Dodge.
I would think that the main reason to pick this one up today is to figure out for yourself the origins of the cultural shorthand “a catch-22”. Luckily, I’m here to save you all the trouble! It’s essentially a plot device: a Catch-22 initially refers to the paradoxical requirement that men who are mentally unfit to fly planes in the war effort did not have to do so, but to claim that you were mentally unfit and did not want to fly made you demonstrably sane (ergo, fit to fly). So, you can’t win either way, it’s a catch-22. Geddit?
In the story, Yossarian has a few stabs at getting the squadron’s doctor to declare him mentally unfit (so that he could go home without having to fly any more missions), but he’s stymied at every turn by Catch-22. This “catch” is invoked a lot as the book goes on, with broader and broader applications, until it becomes an explanation for virtually all unreasonable restrictions encountered by the cast of characters.
The ultimate catch, as Yossarian figures out towards the end, is that Catch-22 doesn’t actually exist, except that everyone simply believes that it does – as such, it can never be repealed, undone, overthrown, or denounced. It’s pretty clever, if you ask me. A “catch-22” is now, of course, understood to mean any type of double-bind or absurd no-win situation, but I’d imagine that only a really small percentage of those who use the phrase have actually read the book. (It’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde all over again!)
Catch-22 reads like a satirical memoir in that it’s a series of anecdotes cobbled together to showcase the ridiculousness of war and bureaucracy. In a lot of respects, though, it’s all over the shop; or, as smarty-pantses would put it, the novel has a “distinctive non-chronological third-person omniscient narration”. Basically, the reader has to figure out for themselves what’s going on and where things are at, because it jumps around like a coked-up rabbit.
The first couple hundred pages are really funny. I don’t think you need to have had exposure to military life to appreciate the comedy – really, any experience with bureaucracy will do. It’s a lot like watching any satirical TV show; there’s a cast of exaggerated characters and maybe a thread or two tying things together, but no real cohesive plot.
Even though Heller was pissed off about its critical reception and sales, Catch-22 actually did quite well. It became particularly popular among teenagers in the 1960s, as a kind of manifesto embodying the feelings they had about the Vietnam War. Indeed, “Yossarian Lives!” became an anti-war slogan at the time, and there was a joke about every liberal arts student arriving at university with a copy of Catch-22 under their arm. So, really, Heller needed to calm down – he captured the youth market at a very turbulent time and coined a phrase used by English speakers every day to describe the universal frustration brought on by dealing with bureaucracy in all its forms. Bloody neurotic writers, they wouldn’t know success if it bit them on the arse…
Like I said, Catch-22 is really funny… for the first couple hundred pages. Past that point, it starts to wear a bit thin. I know Heller was probably Making A Point with all the circular reasoning and repetition, but the point was well-made pretty early on. The second half of the book started to get really predictable (read: boring), and then it nosedived at the end into some really dark realities of war. I recommend that reading some of the funniest excepts online is the best way to go, rather than sinking your teeth into the whole thing (Heller’s neurotic tantrums be damned).
My favourite Amazon reviews of Catch-22:
- “Worth buy.” – Sarah
- “Great opening but then the story becomes more and more predictable and boring as the characters develop. The jokes for some reason don’t captivate my soul.” – lolly
- “It’s a great book. I hate it!” – Cullen Forster
- “First published in 1961, this scathing satire of nincompoops in the Air Force works today about nincompoops everywhere else.” – Gale H. Weir
- “I’m in the Army.” – Daniel Dobson
- “Other than the bible, this is one of my favourite books!” – Mr Paul
June 27, 2018 at 1:46 AM
I love this book. It is really funny as you point out. I think that it broke a lot of ground as it embodied a kind of cynical humor relating to authority. I think that such humor has become somewhat common since this book’s publication but I the time I think that it was groundbreaking.
June 27, 2018 at 11:01 AM
Oh absolutely, you can see it echoed in just about every contemporary satirical book and television program today, which is incredible. I can’t believe Heller was such a baby about its reception, when you consider his influence and reach across the English-speaking world. 😐
June 27, 2018 at 7:26 AM
Catch-42s, oh my God! These are the kinds of moments I never feel equipped to handle, no matter how old I get or how many workplaces I cycle through.
I totally agree with you about this book — I read it when I was fifteen or sixteen and thought it was hilarious, and then revisiting it even a few years later I was just like — oh. That’s all there is to this book. It’s one of my problems with satire across the board: I enjoy a little bit of it, but it’s very hard to sustain over the length of the book. I get impatient and start finding it really repetitive and frustrating.
June 27, 2018 at 11:03 AM
Hahahaha it took everything we had to keep straight faces!
Satire is definitely really difficult to maintain over the length of a novel, or even a film. As best I can tell, the trick is starting really small, and making sure there’s steady growth – if it starts off huge and ridiculous, there’s really nowhere to go. Catch-22 was hilarious, for the first couple hundred pages, but the jokes start to fall a bit flat after they’ve been repeated half a dozen times. Cheers!
June 27, 2018 at 7:16 PM
Fabulous review of Catch-42, I mean, 22. You are hilarious Mrs Keeping Up With The Penguins. Love it. Also love your favourite comments from Amazon, my personal favourite of those being, ‘I’m in the army.’ Keep on keeping up the good penguin work. Amazeballs.
June 27, 2018 at 9:11 PM
Hahahaha cheers Ali 😉 <3
June 28, 2018 at 7:24 PM
Oh how disappointing with such a universal concept I was expecting this to be a work of genius.
Catch 42 is going to become my new phrase by the way, that is wonderful.
rather like my Grandmother’s habit of combining sayings such as a rolling stone is worth two in the bush and so on.
June 28, 2018 at 8:32 PM
Hahahaha! I have another friend that christened them “idiot idioms” – some of our favourites include “blow it out the box” and “going down like a lead sandwich” and “ship up or fuck off”.
July 1, 2018 at 11:27 AM
Ha ha, the Catch-42 story is priceless… maybe it has something to do with the meaning of life. 😆 There’s another literary catch phrase… I think it originated from Hitchhiker’s Guide; the number 42 is the meaning of life. 😀
Thanks for sharing your review. Vonnegut likes to jump around in the narrative like that, too, maybe that’s why I didn’t complain about it as much as my friends did, because I had read several Vonnegut’s before reading this. You have enticed me to re-read it. 👍
July 1, 2018 at 1:42 PM
Oooh, I love inspiring a re-read!! Enjoy!! 😉❤️
July 2, 2018 at 11:52 AM
I’m another one of those who have never read it but know the basic background behind the phrase 🙂 Good on you for persevering through the dry spots. I’d heard another anecdote once, where Kurt Vonnegut asked Heller at a party, ‘Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host only yesterday made more money than your novel has earned in its entire history?’ To which Heller replied, ‘I’ve got something he can never have. The knowledge that I’ve got enough.’ In the light of what you shared here, I wonder if he said it in bitterness. But I’ll say he had enough! A book title that’s become a Catch-phrase for all time isn’t bad.
July 2, 2018 at 2:53 PM
Ahahahaha what a great anecdote!! I have no doubt that it was said with at least a hint of bitterness, the more I read about Heller the more I realise how salty he was for most of his life and career. But even if he wasn’t saying these things in good humour, it still gives me a chuckle every time 😉