Deepcopy

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (7)

A humorous tale about the paradox of war and the desire for survival, that also manages to examine the violence and madness of conflict. Uses the popular technique of out of order story telling, and mixes in rapid fire, scatterbrained dialog sequences that are fun to read and humorous, but eventually drag on over the novel’s length. Though the length seems obsessive, the end is climactic, and some of the paradoxes of war are driven home. This is definitely one of the greatest books I’ve read, and though the length and excessive vocabulary is a bit tedious, the novel really is a masterpiece.

[Originally written June 16, 2002.]