Catch-22 by Joseph Heller — Read

• • 7 • • McWatt Ordinarily, Yossarian's pilot was McWatt, who, shaving in loud red, clean pajamas outside his tent each morning, was one of the odd, ironic, incomprehensible things surrounding Yossarian. McWatt was the craziest combat man of them all probably, because he was perfectly sane and still did not mind the war. He was a short-legged, wide-shouldered, smiling young soul who whistled bouncy show tunes continuously and turned over cards with sharp snaps when he dealt at blackjack or poker until Hungry Joe disintegrated into quaking despair finally beneath their cumulative impact and began ranting at him to stop snapping the cards.

"You son of a bitch, you only do it because it hurts me," Hungry Joe would yell furiously as Yossarian held him back soothingly with one hand. "That's the only reason he does it, because he likes to hear me scream-you goddam son of a bitch!"