Readers United Book Reviews | Down River and Catch-22

In this installment, Fritz Legaspi '18 returns to share a couple of extremely thought-provoking stories.

Down River by John Hart

John Hart’s Down River dovetails themes of suspicion, rumors, and mob mentality. Five years ago, Adam Chase was just barely acquitted of a murder charge. The case had become so messy, his father had even thrown him out of the house. After his friend Danny Faith convinces Adam to return to the town, the entire county is on alert. Due to his conspicuous past, Adam is attacked, insulted, and harassed within hours of his return.

Soon afterward, dead bodies begin to mysteriously appear. Of course, Adam is the primary suspect, but without any evidence against him, no one can bring him to trial. However, the suspicions of society weigh on Adam immensely. With his former love interest now with the police, Adam’s already over-complicated life becomes that much more complicated. Down River is filled to the brim with characters carrying an enormous amount of secrets, and Adam must struggle to stay afloat.

Throughout the book, many different secrets are revealed, many of them shrouded at the beginning. Hart writes in a clear style while still successfully withholding the truth from the readers. The plot develops in an engaging, attention-grabbing fashion, with several recurring motifs appearing in the novel. Moreover, Hart’s background in criminal defense law provides him with an extremely novel viewpoint to write about the story of our barely-innocent protagonist.

Verdict: I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who feels up to the challenge of a book with many hard to decipher secrets. The novel progresses fairly quickly, ensuring that there’s hardly a dull moment while reading it. Adam’s background as an almost-convicted felon is the main driving point of this book, and is a large and welcome change from the innocent protagonists most series and novels seem to be based upon.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

What do you do if you were given an impossible mission, one which would be suicide to undertake? To get out of their missions, the airmen of the 256th Bombardier Squadron must request to be proven mentally unfit. Yet, per military regulation, to do so would prove one mentally fit. Known as a catch-22, this double bind is the reason so few men were able to leave the military during the second World War.

To go more into depth, Captain Yossarian, the protagonist, explains that those deemed mentally unfit, or simply crazy, would not be required to go on flying missions any longer. However, to apply to stop flying would prove a soldier sane, as doing so would indicate that they cared about their own safety. At first, the men of the 256th are proud to fly for their country, and for the defense of other countries in need. As the novel continues, we learn that similar regulations apply to many other facets of the military, preventing soldiers from leaving.

As Captain Yossarian faces this dilemma, we also learn about the other characters in the book. Through extreme amounts of detail, Heller leaves very few characters without their own background and history. Heller seems to greatly enjoy the irony of certain situations, and he gleefully inserts comic details in his stories of other characters. For example, when he describes a character as “good-natured, generous and likable,” Heller also states that nobody could stand the character.

I was thoroughly captivated as I entered the occasionally extremely deep perspective behind the thought process of military personnel during World War II; these airmen prove for an interesting read. Yossarian and others suffer from many mental afflictions, the foremost of which being post-traumatic stress disorder. Their journey, though fictional, is truly one to enjoy in.

Verdict: If you do not have an elementary understanding of warfare, (knowing about air squadrons in particular would help!) this book picks up extremely quickly. If not, an open mind to the struggles of these soldiers is highly recommended for optimal understanding of the novel. As the plot thickens and events seem to worsen, it is important to stay empathetic and sympathetic to Yossarian and the other characters.