59. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

I wanted to read this book to figure out where the term "catch 22" came from. Though it took a very long 400+ pages to get there ... I think I've finally got it :)
The main character of this book is Joseph Yossarian, an American army pilot who is serving off the coast of Italy during World War II. Everyone thinks that Yossarian is crazy because he believes that millions of people are trying to kill him; though I don't think he was really crazy. It seemed more to be his way of avoiding the war - he's angry that his life is always in danger through no fault of his own. Therefore, he keeps trying to rotate out of active flight duty ... but his commander keeps raising the number of missions the men in the squadron have to fly before he will allow them to rotate out. That's where the infamous law, Catch-22, comes in:

"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to."

Because Heller appears to be making a social commentary about the absurdity of war and the ineffectiveness of bureaucracies, I thought that the premise behind Catch-22 had more to do with laws and/or government; but circular logic seems to be a theme throughout the book. There is one part (that almost made me go cross-eyed) where Yossarian is with a woman named Luciana; after he sleeps with her, he decides that he wants to marry her. When he tells her that, she tells him that no man will marry her because she is not a virgin; and when Yossarian tells her that he still wants to marry her, she starts acting crazy and starts telling him that he is crazy for wanting to marry a non-virgin like herself ... and that she can't marry a crazy man!
Heller is a very clever and witty writer. One part I found really funny:

"... Even among men lacking all distinction he inevitably stood out as a man lacking more distinction than all the rest, and people who met him were always impressed by how unimpressive he was."

Although this book took me forever to finish! ... I would say it's definitely a classic worth reading.