Catch-22

“What a lousy earth! He wondered how many people were destitute that same night even in his own prosperous country, how many homes were shanties, how many husbands were drunk and wives socked, and how many children were bullied, abused, or abandoned. How many families hungered for food they could not afford to buy? How many hearts were broken? How many suicides would take place that same night, how many people would go insane? How many cockroaches and landlords would triumph? How many winners were losers, successes failures, and rich men poor men? How many wise guys were stupid? How many happy endings were unhappy endings? How many honest men were liars, brave men cowards, loyal men traitors, how many sainted men were corrupt, how many people in positions of trust had sold their souls to bodyguards, how many had never had souls? How many straight-and-narrow paths were crooked paths? How many best families were worst families and how many good people were bad people? When you added them all up and then subtracted, you might be left with only the children, and perhaps with Albert Einstein and an old violinist or sculptor somewhere.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch 22

節選這段話，覺得它基本上就是全書寫作手筆，方式 ，寓意的一個縮影 。“bitterly funny", 是The New Republic給這本書的評價，最合適不過。讀書的過程中，有很多次啞然失笑，而笑後心裏釀起無邊的苦澀。其實除了funny,bitter, 從上麵的節抄可以看出來，它不是簡單的事情羅列，也不是精彩邏輯擺排的炫耀，它的立足點在這個世界的底層，這個底層的人們是作者最掛牽的群體，他替他們語言，張揚他們的人性光輝。

書中語言流暢，帶著韻律。

"I am cold, I am cold"
"There, there"

在Snowden中彈的描寫裏四次出現，就像樂曲中的重複，每次出現又有不同的味道。

catch-22, Joseph Heller, 用他別致的目光看這個世界，優雅深邃。