Catch-22

Catch 22 is the most accurate depiction of military life ever written. No, I take that back. Catch-22 is the most accurate depiction of life ever written.

You may think I'm as crazy as the eclectic cast it boasts, but I can't be crazy, since anyone with good taste enough to enjoy this book is surely in their right mind. When I say it's the most accurate depiction of life ever written I mean that it takes all the minor absurdities, illogic, and bureaucratic nonsense of life and distillates it down to a thick delicious liquor of dry humor and witty irony. You feel like a newcomer trying to catch up with a long-established group as you hear tantalizing hints of events that are revealed later on. It draws you in with its humorous scenarios and scenes driven by the eccentric cast's interactions, then draws you slowly, inexorably to the darkly logical conclusions of these scenarios and lives.

There are countless memorable scenes, from Clevinger's hilarious trial that reads like the best of Monty Python to the tragedy of Snowden and Yossarian in the back of the bomber. There's a good reason, after all, that this book coined an oft-used idiom for a no-win scenario and defined the genre of black comedy. One interviewer once challenged Joseph Heller, pointing out that he hasn't written a book as good as Catch-22 since. "Who has?" he responded.

Catch-22 is a rare treat: A book often touted as a "classic" that is actually enjoyable. No amount of high school book report assignments can take the shine off this gem. No amount of misguided English teachers, no amount of dissertations on the dangers of capitalism embodied in Milo Minderbinder, no papers about wether Major Major looked like Henry Fonda, WAS Henry Fonda, or should have been played by Henry Fonda in the critically panned movie.

We have Catch-22 to thank for many things. We have a name for that messed up inescapable situation often found in life, and we know how to laugh at it. It paved the way for future works such as M*A*S*H and other war-critical movies. In short, I can't praise it enough and I consider it a must-read for anyone that can appreciate wry irony and wit. You know, wisenheimers.