Catch-22

A skewering war satire 50 years before Comedy Central
Today, satirists like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are ably demonstrating the War on Terror's absurdities. Sharp as they are, however, Joseph Heller beat them to the punch by a good 50 years. His comic masterpiece, Catch-22, remains the first and best word on modern war's perverse logic and bureaucratic government run amok. Heller's insights remain landmark accomplishments, but his satire slides down as easily as a dose of Comedy Central.

Catch-22 is the story of bomber pilot Yossarian, who just wants to quit World War II. That should be easy: all he needs to do is prove he's insane and he can go home. The problem is that no man who wants to exchange the carnage of war for a comfy home life could possibly be insane. And that's the catch-22 — a conundrum with no clear or logical solution.

It's this screwy but impenetrable logic that bedevils all the members of Yossarian's unit, from the phlegmatic Major Major Major Major (who can never be promoted or demoted because bureaucrats find his name funny) to Doc Daneeka, who can't convince anyone he's alive after the military declares him legally dead. But in this far-ranging book Heller also goes beyond the hapless to bring together the entire panoply of war, including profiteer Milo Minderbinder, the brownnosing careerist Colonel Cathcart, and everyman soldier Appleby.

Often funny, Catch-22 remains vital because it holds up a dark mirror to our own world. And with today's euphemisms like "enhanced interrogation procedures" and the U.S. government's ongoing embrace of "truthiness," it's unfortunately clear that Heller's book remains a must-read.