CATCH-22

In Jim Weiss’s performance of Heller’s uproarious WWII novel, the characters are practically cartoons. That is no insult, but the highest admiration for Weiss’s choices and his verve. Heller’s characters are meant to be absurdities. His U.S. Army is peopled with men of outlandish traits; they’re monumentally corrupt, buffoonish, overweaning characters whose self-involvement places the actual fighting men, including the novel’s recalcitrant hero, Yossarian, into the most ghastly jeopardy. Weiss’s exuberance never lets up. He captures the comic lunacy of Heller’s genius and--even more impressively--intercuts its moments of sheer terror and despair to devastating effect. It is precisely the bravura performance that this, arguably the greatest war novel ever written, deserves. M.O. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 03]