What is this, you ask yourself. A book review of real novel without all that fancy schmancy Science Fiction or Fantasy things to befuddle the experience? A book review of a real classic, as if yours truly have ever been known to read those. Why, yes. Of course this is what it is. I won’t proclaim that I’ll go very far in delving what Heller tries to say with this book, but I will do my best to tell you what I thought of it.

I might as well start off with telling you why I decided to buy a non-speculative novel in the first place. As any good idea, the idea of Catch-22 came to me while I was watching one of my favourite TV-shows, Scrubs. JD was lecturing his new interns in a matter I know longer remember, but I do recall that he at long last came to halt when he said that this was a Catch-22 situation and made a mention of the book (apparently according to JD it’s about a fisherman who tries to catch 22 fish). What the heck is that, I asked myself, and Googled it to find out.

A Catch-22 situation is, for the unenlightened readers, a situation which you cannot solve or otherwise get out off. You can find countless Catch-22’s in the book and for the sake of your understanding I’ll try to give you one.

The main character is named Yossarian and he is a bombardier in an American bomber squad during the WWII.Yossarian never wanted to go to war, so he chose the profession bombardier because it had the longest period of education and he had high hopes that the war would be over by the time he’d finished. No such luck, sadly.

We meet up with Yossarian for the first time when he’s lying in the base hospital of Pienosa, a little island some miles of the south coast of Italy. Yossarian is in the hospital because he has an idiot colonel who tries to impress his commanders by making his squadron of bombers fly more missions than everyone else. Every time Yossarian comes anywhere close of finishing his missions, Colonel Cathcart raises them again. And every time Colonel Cathcart raises the number of missions, Yossarian protests by vowing to lie in the hospital with his liver that’s just short of becoming jauntice until the war is over. But after fourteen days or so Yossarian is thrown out and has to fly more mission. Yossarian is of course absolutely incensed about this, because a. he’s clearly crazy and should therefore not be permitted to fly (he really is crazy. At one point he walks around naked for fourteen days because he no longer wants to wear a uniform.) and b. he’s already flewn the initial 25 mission that the other squadrons are demanding. When he goes to the doctor and tells him this, he gets a most unwanted explanation. By law, doctor Daneeka cannot permit people who are crazy to fly planes, but by the same law he cannot ground anyone until they ask to be grounded. But the same law also states that if a person asks to be grounded, he is clearly not crazy because only sane people would ask to be grounded (that’s the infamous Catch-22 clause), and since he isn’t crazy, anyone who asks to be grounded must keep flying until he has finished his missions (which always goes up). Ladies and gentlemen, that is the original Catch-22.

However, it wasn’t the premise of the book that led me to read it. It was the fact that it is counted amongst the greatest American novels ever written and it also said to be amongst the funniest novels ever written. That’s a hard combo to argue with in any situation.

Catch-22 is a book unlike every other book I’ve ever read. First of all, it has no plot. No plot whatsoever. If you ever think you’ve found something you can point at and shout “Looksey! Plot!”, you are clearly mistaken. I normally like my books to have some kind of plot, but in this case you don’t really contemplate the fact until you’re some way into the book and then you only thought of it because you found the fact refreshing. This book is all about the characters. Never in my life have I ever stumbled on such a gang of weirdos and crazies and shitheads who have been so endearing. I have also never in my life read a book as funny as Heller’s masterpiece. Add to that that I’ve never read a more original book in terms of it’s prose and style, and you’ve pretty much summed up the entire experience of reading the book.

I can find no fault with this book and it should therefore not come as a shock when I grant it a 10/10. The only other book who has deserved that grade is my beloved The Lord of the Rings. My online friend, Brækar, once asked why I would never give a book the highest grade possible, even if I loved it endlessly. I answered that, no, I would in fact give a book the highest grade possible if I could ever find a book that was as good as the best book I’ve ever read. Catch-22 is that book I was talking about and I beg you to read it

It’s pure magic printed on paper. Except that it doesn’t really have any magic in it. It’s just damned funny.

Yossarian Lives!