I don't mind a parasite. I object to a cut-rate one.

I recently finished reading Catch-22. For some reason I had included it on my list of things to do; I honestly don't know what spurred me to pick that book, but what the heck? I guess I just wanted to know the story behind the phrase. I don't think I knew anything about the book at all when I picked it up.

I'm glad I chose it. It was way different than I thought. For one thing, it's very funny. It's all absurdist humor, which is mostly very amusing, but sometimes gets old. The book is almost 500 pages long, and some of the exchanges do seem very repetitive. Admittedly, that's partially the point--these people are just going around and around. But the frequent absurd exchanges can get to be a bit much. I preferred the stories about Minderbinder and his empire. I mean, chocolate-covered cotton balls? Genius!

A lot of times, I have problems with books that aren't necessarily straightforward, but I didn't really have that problem with this book, though there is a lot of jumping around in time, without necessarily knowing when the action is taking place in the context of the book. I did find the circular logic of the book trying at times, but that's kind of the point of the book.

But what I really appreciated was the portrayal of World War II. We have a tendency to view WWII as this great, noble war, particularly in light of Vietnam; Catch-22 came out in 1961, and Heller had been working on it for years. And in the book, World War II looks anything but noble. The leadership is mocked, and the soldiers are largely portrayed as men who really just want to go home. In some ways, it seems a lot more realistic than some of the portrayals of WWII we see a lot. Not that I don't love Band of Brothers, but it's nice to see an alternative to that.

Speaking of other sides of war, I crossed another item off my to-do list by watching Casablanca this evening. I knew pretty much every line in the last scene, but it was good seeing it in context. And again, I was surprised at how funny it was. Rick? Totally awesome. Love him. Plus, I do have a weakness for a guy who's pining. Sometimes it was hard to just listen to the dialogue, since it was so familiar, but the writing was really good--as was the acting. So yep, totally recommend it. Also, at less than 2 hours, it's a lot faster to watch Casablanca than read Catch-22.