Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

“...[A]nything worth dying for ... is certainly worth living for.” 

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is set during WWII on island of Pianosa (though the setting is of little importance). It follows the story of a common soldier, Yossarian, and his friends. Yossarian has lost many of his colleagues and friends to the war. His problems are further perpetuated by Colonel Cathcar, who keeps raising the number of missions the men had to fly to complete their service. No matter, how much Yossarian longs to be sent home, he is trapped by a ‘Catch-22’. The term, coined by Heller, refers to the paradoxical set of circumstances that the characters are often faced with; especially, the idea that any soldier who is willing to fly is insane and could be sent home if he asked for it, however, as soon as he asks to be sent home he shows concern for his safety and is therefore of a rational mind.

Heller’s satirical book is, despite initial controversy, a defining novel of the 20^th Century. Despite it being set during WWII, the book concerns postmodernist ideas. The book is still taught in schools and contains important critiques that can still be applied to modern society. Any reader has to be prepared to face the absurdity of Heller’s work. Personally, I did not enjoy the book. However, this is because I prefer the structure and predictability of Victorian literature. But I am glad that I read this book. I thought Heller presented very important ideas and I agreed with many of his values; some of these ideas will be explored later in this review.

The novel has become representative of postmodernist literature by its subversion of form to represent the zeitgeist of the time. The book uses an ‘anti-novel’ structure and an ‘anti-hero’. The book rejects many of the traditional novel formats. The book is not written in chronological order and does not follow the structure of introduction, climax and conclusion. Instead the reader is introduced to Yossarian in a hospital talking about events that will only occur at the end of the book. Yossarian talks about the death of Snowden during a mission that isn’t described until the second last chapter of the book. The novel also has an ambiguous ending, living questions unanswered. Yossarian, the protagonist, is not a ‘hero’. Yossarian has many faults and is quite insane – or at actually he is quite sane in an insane world. Yossarian does not have the courage and intengrity that heroes often display. The whole plot follows Yossarian’s plan to escape, including the lies he creates to stay in a hospital where he can escape his duties. These are two of the main ways that Heller changes the format of books in order to represent the new values of the postmodern world.

Themes

Stasiland by Anna Funder

“Though it is the hardest thing, to work out one's weight and heft in the world, to whittle down all that I am and give it a value.” - Anna Funder

Stasiland is Australian Anna Funder’s literary journalism of Germany’s dark past.  In 1996, seven years after the reunification of Germany, Funder is working in television in West Berlin and grows interested in the occupants of the former German Democratic Republic. She explores the stories of the victims and perpetrators of the Stasi in East Germany. Anecdotes are drawn from people who answer to Funder’s newspaper advertisements and Funder’s own acquaintances. Miriam is the ‘tragic hero’ of the text. Funder sympathises with the 16-year-old who came to be considered an enemy of the state. Miriam tells the story of Charlie, her husband that was killed in custody. Miriam’s story is interwoven with the stories of Julia and Frau Paul. Julia is Funder’s land lady, although reluctant about telling her story, shares the details of how her family went through “internal emigration”. Julia was ostracized because of her Italian boyfriend even though she had no intentions to go against the state. Frau Paul shares her story of how her sick baby was taken to West Berlin for treatment and because of her attempts to visit her son she becomes embroiled with a group helping people leave East Berlin. These sad stories are mixed with the stories of the perpetrators, the people who worked with or helped the Nazi, including Herr Winz, Hagen Koch, Karl E. Schnitzler and Herr Bock. Many of these men think back to the GDR with nostalgia and little to none remorse. Funder’s story is a personal and passionate exploration of Germany’s Stasi epoch.

I really enjoyed Stasiland, and I don’t often read non-fiction. Funder’s literary journalism style may not be conventional or the most factual but I found that it is creates a very interesting way to read non-fiction. I could empathise with these real life characters and it added a breath of fresh air into a topic that is now often seen only through the details of school textbooks.

Hiroshima by John Hersey

"What has kept the world safe from the bomb since 1945 has not been deterrence, in the sense of fear of specific weapons, so much as it's been memory. The memory of what happened at Hiroshima." - John Hersey

Hiroshima by John Hersey is simply summarized as the story of the atomic bomb survivors. Hiroshima follows the story of six of the survivors and the impact of the bomb on their lives. Hersey uses a style of New Journalism - using fiction writing techniques to recount true stories. This allows for readers to really understand the horrific consequences of war and of the nuclear bomb; while the book is non-fiction it focuses on the stories of ordinary people instead of data and statistic.

There is not much to add to this review, it is simply a truly poignant account of ordinary people affected by the decisions of power hungry governments. The book is a fantastic way to gather information on the context and impacts of the bomb. Hiroshima is sad and it's tragic, but it's real life. I (hopefully) will never understand the full effect of the bomb, but this book was able to open my previously ignorant eyes. I had always thought of the atomic bomb as being a completely horrible and unnecessary weapon, but it wasn't until I connected with the characters Hiroshima and saw their struggles that I realized the meaning that horrible and tragic can really take. I knew the facts on what the bomb is capable of, of the number of casualties, their mutations, the amount of town and buildings ruined, but no teacher had been able to pass on the impact of the bomb as clearly and as moving.

An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro

“A man who aspires to rise above the mediocre, to be something more than the ordinary, surely deserves admiration, even if he fails and loses a fortune on account of his ambitions . . . if one has failed only where others have not had the courage or will to try . . .  to be gained from his observation when looking back over one's life."

Kazuo Ishiguro's An Artist of the Floating World, follows the story of Masuji Ono, a propagandist artist for Japan Imperialism during the war. Following Japan’s defeat in the war, Ono becomes a discredited figure; his daughter, evermore influenced by her husband, criticizes her father for his past. To make it worst, Ono’s wife and son were killed and his youngest daughter was in her mid 20s and having trouble finding a husband. Ishiguro manages to provide a peek into post-war Japan and how the paradigms were shifting. The old tradition and ideas had to adapt to the new way of life, one that closely followed the USA. Ono is caught between worlds; he is ‘an artist of the floating world’.

This story is short, flowing and presents an interesting view, there is no reason why anybody shouldn't take a few hours (or less) to read Ishiguro’s, ‘An Artist of the Floating World’. The whole story is told in Ono’s point of view, I found this quite different as many novels don’t place an old retired man as the protagonist of the book. However, I found this technique captured perfectly the hypocritical state and the imbalanced state that Japan was left during the war. Ono had been considered a very patriotic Japanese. Now, he still had pride, he did what he believed was right and he was a well-known artists, however, he being forced to change his views and his whole history in order to be a ‘loyal’ Japanese. Ono’s mind quite often strayed and spoke about different ideas, but I think that he was, inherent to Japanese culture, very structured and the novel never became a stream of consciousness. At times, I did get lost as there were so many names and so many really similar names – I found it more confusing when Ono’s story would stray for five pages and he would suddenly remind himself to get back to the story. However, this way we are taken into the mind of the retired man, he has a lot of time to reminisce and he lives in a very tranquil state of mind even with everything going around him.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

“One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.”

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley reminds me of a more disturbing and extreme version of 1984. The 20^th Century novel is set in London in 2540 (in the book, known as 632 after Ford).  The world is stable; nobody ever suffers, the world is united, the people are happy and everyone is in a job that is satisfactory to them. However, this means controlling everything; the world has a stable population of 2 billion, children are ‘manufactured’ in labs, genetically modified to fit a caste and then educated – almost traumatized/terrorized – to fit into society. The lower castes (the majority of the population) are bred through a process in which one single egg produces up to 96 identical children. When Bernard and Lenina travel to the “Savage Reservation”, they are shocked at the difference between the two worlds. They end up encountering, John, a young man that was born from World State parents but born and raised in the Savage World. John is an outsider due to his appearance in the primitive village, and finds comfort in reading Shakespeare. Bernard decides to take John and his mother back to London. However, John finds the ‘civilized’ society appalling and is still feels as the outsider...

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

“I started my life with a single absolute: that the world was mine to shape in the image of my highest values and never to be given up to a lesser standard, no matter how long or hard the struggle.” 

“If you don't know, the thing to do is not to get scared, but to learn.” 

“It is not death that we wish to avoid, but life that we wish to live.” 

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand is the story of the creative minds, the hard workers, the inventors protesting against the corrupt government and society. It is mostly told through Dagny Taggart’s (a railroad executive) point of view. She struggles to follow her moral code and love for her industry while having to sacrifice everything for a society/government that judges her as amoral; taking advantage of her virtues. John Galt becomes the symbol of everything she hates, but mostly everything she loves. Dagny finds a broken down motor which runs on static electricity, as she tries to find the inventor and his reasons for abandoning the motor she begins to find a whole new world and philosophy. Dagny is reluctant to give up her railroad but she begins to see that she is only helping the looters.

As you should be able to tell by my use of three quotes, I really liked the book and what it had to say. I had previously read, We the Living, and I had really enjoyed it so I decided to read another of Rand’s book. I must say, I have found that I really agree with Rand’s philosophy. There were a lot of teachers that did not support me reading this book, they thought it would ‘brainwash’ me; too extremist. I don’t think these teachers had completely read the book, because too me it wasn't just about being rich and selfish. Sure, it justified capitalism and some things were exaggerated; however, it talked about hard work, about only giving and taking what is deserved and about money being important but only the tool and not the means or the end.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

“If an offense come out of the truth, better is it that the offense comes than that the truth be concealed.”  - Tess of the d’Urbervilles

Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy is set in a small country town in Wessex, at the end of the 19^th Century. The Durbeyfields discover they are the descendants of a forgotten noble family – the d’Urbervilles. When the family experiences financial hardship they send their eldest daughter to ask for help from their “kin” (a family that bought the name of d’Urberville). Tess meets Alec d’Urberville her (fake) cousin. While Tess is working for Alec’s mother, he rapes her. The rest of the story is about the struggles Tess faces as a victim of rape in a society that blamed her for her own predicament. Even her mother blamed her for not marrying Alec.

Is this a good book? Yes and no. I didn’t like it; in fact I quite detested it. I didn’t like the ending of the story and I certainly didn’t like the characters, not even Tess. However, if Hardy’s purpose in writing was to draw emotions, even if they are negative, if his purpose was to start a debate on feminist issues then he did a good job with his book. Personally, I like the idea of books as escapism and of stories with happy endings. I did not achieve this with Tess of d’Urbervilles, but I did go on an emotional roller coaster ride as I had heated discussions with all of the characters at one point or another.