Friday Focus - Joseph Heller

The late Joseph Heller, the author of the book "Catch 22" was born on May 1st 1923 and died December 12th 1999 of a heart attack. His parents were poor Jews that came to Brooklyn, New York from Russia. According to GoodReads.com, he loved writing as a young boy and knew he wanted to become a writer at age 11, already sending in a story about the war in Finland to the New York Daily News, sadly, they rejected it. In 1941, he worked three jobs after finishing his senior year at Abraham Lincoln High School. At age 19, Heller was assigned to the U.S Airforce and headed to Italy where served his part in World War 2. During his time in Italy, he flew approximately 60 combat missions in a B-25 bombardier. He has stated that he is proud of his tour in Italy, and claimed that the war was exciting in the beginning. Joseph is famous for writing satirical novels, and the book Catch 22 is his most famous works and Wikipedia claims it to be one of greatest literary works of the 20th century. Interestingly enough, the book Catch 22 is about a B-25 bombardier, in Italy during World War 2. Therefore, it is safe to assume that he used quite a lot of his own experiences and possibly feelings and locations for the book. The best way i have found to describe His writing style is from Encyclopedia.com and goes like this:


"Heller's tragicomic vision of modern life, found in all of his novels, focuses on the erosion of humanistic values and highlights the ways in which language obscures and confuses reality"

And Encyclopedia.com also states that all his protagonists are so called antiheroes, or a hero that lacks the normal qualities one usually associate with a normal hero such as courage. While instead, they usually have traits like dishonesty and lack of morale. Which is a fitting kind of protagonist for a setting such as World War 2. Another important theme in Heller's writing is the struggle between big and powerful institutions such as the federal government and the military. Other central themes in Heller's novels are skepticism, cynicism, corruption and degeneration. Which is topics I have decided to keep an eye out for when reading catch 22, which is considered as his crown achievement in literature.

I hope you all will enjoy my weekly updates about Catch 22 and my interpretation, views and expectations from the book as I read chapter after chapter, dragging you alongside me.

See you on Sunday!

-Mikkel

Sources:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Joseph_Heller.aspx
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3167.Joseph_Heller
http://www.biography.com/people/joseph-heller-9334279
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Heller