Fifty years after the WWII events of Catch
22, and the world is a different place, but for John Yossarian it remains full
of nonsense and contradiction.
Only now he is less angry, more cynical, and
ground down to accepting that catch 22 is not just alive and well, but thriving
in a fin de siècle United States of America.
He suffers a malaise that doctors cannot
diagnose, but a pretty nurse can assuage in return for romantic attentions and
generous gifts. And money is no object thanks to his financial interest in Milo
Minderbinder’s global business (nothing changed there except the scale) and its
latest product – the M&M A&E Sub Supersonic Invisible and Noiseless
Defensive Second Strike Offensive Attack Bomber – with which they court the
military procurers.
Of more interest to them is ex-Chaplain
Albert Tappman whose inadvertent passing of heavy water in his urine makes him
both a potential defence risk and military asset.
These and other surreal situations (including
a subterranean amusement park and an outrageously extravagant wedding held
inappropriately in the seedy Port Authority Bus Terminal, where the down and
outs are removed to be replaced by role-playing actors) are mixed in with nostalgic
recollections and the morose musings of Yossarian and his fellow veterans.
The effect is mesmeric in parts, but a moral
bleakness is the lasting impression as the WWII generation is left behind, as
their country hurtles towards the new millennium (or Armageddon) on a journey
Yossarian, at least, is content not to be a part of.
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