Catch 22. My favourite book of all time! I must have read it 7-8 times and still laugh out loud every time!...
Heller was a genius!...
Yep, absolute classic. Catch 22 always reminds me of a British war pilot called Eric Brown, who later became a famous test pilot for fighter Jets. He was a classic mix of that steely stiff upper lip, mixed with complete insanity given the situations he found himself in. He flew for many years in the Navy and I remember him recalling a story about taking off from the flight deck of his carrier, going off on his bombing mission and then couldn't find his ship again. There was no radio contact between planes and ships as that would give away their position to the enemy.
He flew around until he was almost preparing to ditch and then spotted it on the horizon. When he got to the ship it had been torpedoed and was listing badly. The account he recalls of trying to land his plane on a deck listing at 45 deg with no fuel left in his tank is incredible. Many pilots were lost at sea simply because they never found their way back to the carriers that they left. Crazy times.


