Catch-22 and Something Else 4/20/2010

 Long since I read [Joseph Heller's] Catch-22 or Something Else. I actually read Something Else before Catch-22, but both are now long in my past. I actually remember more of the style of Something Else than its substance or plot. It was frenetic, neurotic, with long asides in parentheses, and it was a pretty grim rat-race existence it portrayed. I remember little of Catch-22 (I actually remember more from the movie.) Maybe I remember Something Else better, as it was a gift from a high school history teacher of mine.

 So why all this preamble about two books well over 30 years old? Today, while working my lunch detail, I remembered Something Else. That I recalled its tone would be more accurate.

I think Heller's less famous book may actually describe our current lives and world, especially our inner lives, better than it described the 1970s. Or, maybe by ignoring our problems from the 1970s, we only exacerbated those problems and spread them further about our society.

I should put down these books on a list of books to re-read. The rest of you - give it a read.

sch