"[T]here were many officers' clubs that Yossarian had not helped build, but he was proudest
of the one on Pianosa...It was truly a splendid structure, and Yossarian throbbed with a mighty sense of accomplishment each time he gazed at it and reflected that none of the work that had gone into it was his."
"Appleby was a fair-haired boy from Iowa who believed in God, Motherhood and the American Way of Life, without ever thinking about any of them, and everybody who knew him liked him.
'I hate that son of a bitch,' Yossarian growled."
I am coming into this book not knowing exactly what the book Catch-22 is about, but I do know that a catch-22 is, in the words of Google, "a dilemma or difficult circumstance from which there is no escape because of mutually conflicting or dependent conditions." Because of this prior knowledge, I have noticed many contradictions in the first twenty pages of this book, three of which are included above. Though most of these dilemmas are used for humor, the fact that the book has become a synonym for "vicious cycle" leads me to believe that there will be a much more meaningful catch-22 later in the novel.
What struck me the most over these first few pages was this book's sense of humor. I usually don't laugh out loud at words on a page; some sort of audio or visual is needed. However, I laughed more than once over just this short section. Though war books such as this are often anything but funny, Heller's sense of humor, if it keeps up, will certainly keep me more engaged than I would be otherwise. However, Heller is probably not just trying to be funny; he is most likely trying to make some point about the absurdity of the situations that these soldiers find themselves in. Whatever his purpose, I enjoyed the first twenty pages of Catch-22 immensely, and am looking forward to reading this book over the next couple of weeks.
And, finally, my favorite line from this section:
"'Men,' Colonel Cargill began in Yossarian's squadron, measuring his pauses carefully. 'You're American officers. The officers of no other army in the world can make that statement. Think about it.'"
