Take him outside and shoot him. Review on Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

I first heard of the phrase Catch 22 from a client. He was trying to explain to me the rather oxymoronic predicament we found ourselves in at that moment. So sure enough once had enlightened me on the meaning of the phrase I forgot all about it. But as you might have guessed so far I am a person who loves to learn and research. So once I had furiously googled the phrase I was delighted to find out that it was from a novel by Joseph Heller called Catch 22. The story might end there but for the fact that on one rather boring monotonous Friday afternoon I found my self at the book shop sifting through a rather intimidating stack of books. And lo and Behold I find myself staring at Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. So with nothing on my hands but time I decide to indulge myself and bought the book. The book cost me 237 Rs. And the cover proudly announced that it was “One of the novels of the century”. I decided to give it a go. Instantly I found my self rolling from side to side reading the hilarious satire about the American Army in the Second World War. I will be understating facts if I said the book is funny. It is down right hilarious. The protagonist is Yossarian a captain in the air force squadron. Yossarian is definitely Looney but compared to some of the other characters in the novel he is pretty level headed. The book is loosely centred on Yossarian and the author has actually described a character every chapter. And I must say it must have taken incredible concentration to still makes sure that everything ended up around the central character Yossarian. There are certain passages in the book that had my seams splitting at the sides. I was so excited about the book it took me two nights flat to gobble up all 570 pages of the book. Joseph Heller has to have written the wittiest book I have read till date. I have had the pleasure of being exposed to writers from all genres and I feel that nothing has ever come close to this book in terms of being so satirical. The book has dark humour and it has passages that have no humour at all. The author has made sure he has displayed the dark side of war to the reader. But I feel Joseph Heller’s forte is no doubt wit and humour. I could sit her and describe characters like Major Major Major Major and the bewildered Chaplain. But it would probably take me hours. All I will say is if that you are the kind of person who can appreciate black humour or even plain and simple slapstick humour you are in for quite a read. The book is 570 pages of entertainment front to back. I can proudly add the book to my collection and I HIGHLY recommend the book to anyone who likes reading. Just a statutory warning “Make sure you do not look like a madman when you are laughing your head off”. And you will have to find out what a catch 22 is yourself.