Description
In this episode, Sam and Maartje are joined by literary friend Phoebe to talk about Catch-22. While there is a movie and a series, we mainly focus on Joseph Heller’s satirical novel, one of Sam’s all-time favourites. What does it all mean? Is this book impossible to adapt? Would it even be written today? We have a good chat about it.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
We would be remiss not to include the actual book, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller on this page. You can find our thoughts on the satirical novel in our podcast episode, but we all recommend you read this book. You’ll be sure to get some laughs out of it, and it’ll mean you’ve read an absolute classic.
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Catch-22 tv show and movie trailers
Book Recs by Phoebe
Bomber by Len Deighton follows a Lancaster crew in the Raf over 24 hours/one mission and alternates between them and an assortment of characters in the German town they’ve been assigned to bomb. It’s a novel, but still written in a “fake history” style with an epilogue about what happened to the characters after as if they were real people, even though it takes place on a non-existent date in a non-existent town.
Stalingrad/Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman is technically a duology, but Life and Fate can also be read as a stand-alone. The author intended it to be a 20th-century war and peace about the lives of interconnected families during the battle of Stalingrad. It is also heavily autobiographical and draws on Grossman’s Soviet Jewish family and work as a war correspondent. The English translation is good, but Stalingrad, in particular, does suffer a bit from being written under active censorship laws. Bonus points for making me cry on a plane in public.
Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada is about a middle-aged German couple who have been supporting the Nazis until their only son dies in the war, so they start a campaign of writing postcards with anti-Nazi slogans and dropping them around the city hoping that it’ll start a larger resistance movement. Based on a true story, and I also liked how the author lived under the Nazi regime. It was published in 1947, so unlike many novels that came later about Germany and the resistance, it’s a sharp, first-hand account by someone who was there, even though he didn’t know the couple the story is inspired by personally. It was also made into a film in 2016, but I haven’t seen it, so I can’t give you thoughts. Also gets bonus points for making me cry.
The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat is a semi-autobiographical novel based on the author’s wartime service on a Royal Navy escort ship during the battle of the Atlantic. It was published in 1951, so unfortunately, it is very much a product of its time when it comes to women and anyone who isn’t English, but it’s a solid thriller and an enjoyable read if you like nautical nonsense. There’s a 1953 film that’s still a bit of a cult classic in the modern Royal Navy, which I think is interesting. Snorkers, good oh, etc.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon is not exactly a war novel because it covers the period from 1939 to the mid-50s. Still, the war plays an important role in the characters’ lives. The basic plot is two Jewish cousins, one from New York and one from Prague, start writing superhero comics and try to make something of themselves in wartime and after. It won the Pulitzer, and everyone I’ve recommended it to has loved it, so I am once again asking everyone I know to read this book, mainly because it’s a love letter to New York and Jewish Americana.
