Vintage Classics Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition

日本語翻訳版を読んであまりの翻訳に原文を読みたくて購入（2009年だから5年前） でも難しすぎて途中で脱落ｗｗ。 それから長い時間が過ぎて半年前にKINDLE版を購入しました。 今度はスルスルとまではいかないが、なんとか楽しめるレベルで読み進んでいます。 その理由はポップアップ翻訳。 わからない文字をタップするとOXFORDの英英辞典が出てきます。 便利な世の中になったものですね。 英語の韻を踏んだ表現とか、作者の知性を感じさせる英語ならではのうまい言い回しとか やはり、原文でないと味わえない部分があります。 イギリスのロスチャイルド家がアメリカの新参者ロックフェラー家との対立を茶化しているような下りや、 味方の飛行場を爆撃する多国籍企業マイローの『マイロー社にいいことは、アメリカにとってもいいことだ！』 という（これは”フォードにとっていいことは、アメリカにとっていいことだ”のパロディ） 比喩、暗喩、パロディ、スラップスティック と一見下品な話の中にきらりと知性を感じさせるうまい言い回しなど、英文ならではの味わいが楽しめます。 そして最後にばらばらと思われた部品がカチリとはまる作者のプロット回しの巧妙さと痛快さ。 あの、村上春樹さんが「Catch-22が書ければ後は作家を辞めてもいい」発言をした理由がよくわかります。 ぜひ、KINDLE版を購入されることをお勧めします。 値段も安いですしね。

Not really impressed with the cover paper material but the book is really good.

More about the book itself than the story - the quality of the paper is low and the ink bleeds so the words aren't sharp. Buying this paperback is an advert for switching to an ereader.

A masterpiece

Catch-22 is perhaps the most bizarre novel I've read. It's tangential, disjointed funny and sad. It's very much tongue-in-cheek for the vast majority of the time, but when it it's not, it's poignant. From some of the most insane dialogue to scenes of personal horror, the book ties together the literal madness of war and the gritty truth of it. The idea of Catch-22 has become part of the general vernacular in most English speaking nations since the 1970s and most of us have used it to describe a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. The catch stems from the idea that as a combat pilot, you can only be grounded in perfect physical health if you're mad. If you ask to be grounded though, you must be sane because only mad men want to fly combat missions. Having asked to be grounded, how do you then prove you're mad? Do you go on parade naked? Do you attend a funeral sitting naked up a nearby tree? Do you have horrific nightmares at the thought of flying no more missions? You can try, but you won't succeed because of Catch-22. When you read this novel, you'll quickly discover that such a catch can only exist because everyone is mad. From Private to General, there is not a sane man to be found. Even the psychiatrist is quite plainly mad. The result is some real laugh out loud moments as we follow Yossarian through his struggles to be sent home alive. But when we read of the horrors through which he has lived, we begin to understand. There isn't too much dwelling on the facts of post-traumatic stress, and if you didn't know of such a thing, you would find it hard to spot in the novel - it is never discussed, never referred to and the resulting madness seems part of everyday life on base. I found I came to like Yossarian and think him the most sane of all, especially in comparison to the likes of Hungry Joe, Colonel Korn and General Scheisskopf (you don't need to know much German to see what Heller did there!). I found Catch-22 wasn't a novel I felt compelled to keep reading, largely because of its disjointed nature - it does hop around in time and space a lot - but when I did pick it up, I flew through it, often smiling to myself, often with an eyebrow raised. I smiled when I finished the book because ultimately I really enjoyed it. I now want to get my hands on the film and see just how true to the book it manages to stay.