Memphis Reads Archive

Mary Seratt celebrates CATCH-22, by Jospeh Heller

This was the first book I read as a teenager that seemed to confirm what I was beginning to suspect, that is, that bureaucratic institutions often behaved in ways that were irrational, but that they could justify as being rational through circular reasoning. I didn’t have the vocabulary for this as a teen, but the concept made a lot of sense to me. It definitely colored my thinking and ideas about morality. It was a relief to find that someone else had noticed that bad people often profited at the expense of others and that doing the right thing was often perceived as wrong--or at least foolish. It made me think about what really is right, and wonder how I would react when I encountered the inevitable moral dilemmas of life.

-- Mary Seratt, Central Library

Labels: Banned Books Week