Catch-22

Catch-22
by Joseph Heller
read: circa 1997
Time 100 Novels, Modern Library #7, Guardian 1000 Novels

I don't have a hard list of my favorite books, but if I did it's safe to say Catch-22 would be on it, and would have been on it ever since I read it.  I think it's the first book I read that blended being hilariously funny and entertaining with having a real message and emotional impact.  To me, that's how life is, neither universally serious or funny, neither universally happy or sad, and I really respond to art and literature presented in this way.  This style really works with the themes in Catch-22; Heller makes the point that war is not only horrible  for its death and violence but also absurd for the bureaucracy, corruption, and madness of armies and men fighting in war.