Bohemia Bunny

Go, Yo-Yo!

February 23rd, 2007 by lynn under Leisure

I just finished Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, that classic of, er, I don’t even know what genre it comes under. It’s about a squadron of fighter pilots stuck in the Mediterranean during World War II, but there’s very little fighting involved. Tons of bureaucracy though, which is the main focus of the plot.

The book is ridiculously absurd. Everyone has his own agenda, none of which involves actually fighting the war. Yossarian, the hero, is desperate to go home before he’s killed. He’s already lost a couple of colleagues, and more die throughout the book. He has to fulfil a certain number of missions, but every time he comes close to hitting the quota, his commanding officer raises the quota.

Meanwhile, the higher-ups are less concerned with who dies and how the war goes, and more concerned with how their military resume works, and who’s going to get promoted over whom. That’s why Yossarian can’t leave - his commanding officer raises the quota so that he’ll look good commanding the squadron with the highest number of missions flown.

All this could get unbearably heavy and plotty if it wasn’t for the generous sprinkling of extremely funny pickles the characters get themselves in. The mess hall officer runs some sort of syndicate that everyone has a share in, but he’s the only one who profits - but of course.

It took me 6 weeks to finish reading this book, in short snatches while on the bus, waiting for the LRT, and finally one final sprint at home. Unfortunately it’s overdue now, I’m facing a fine when I finally do return it to the library. But it was oh-so-worth it.

And a final note: For some reason, NUS procured a limited-edition signed copy of the book, which totally amazed me and the people I showed it to. We’re still wondering how come NUS trusts its philistine student population with such a valuable book, instead of putting it in closed stacks. But I’m glad they didn’t.