ed over, and the logo of his M&M Enterprises replaces them.It's all okay, because the food is good and 'everybody has a share' (p. 228). I lost count of the commodity deals he made - exotic spiders, chick-peas, unripenedred bananas, endive, mushrooms, artichokes, vanilla beans, cinnamon sticks, caraway seeds, tangerines, cocoa (e.g., 226-7, 231, 248, 273, 365). In the process hebecomes Mayor of Palermo, Assistant Governor General of Malta, Vice-Shah of Oran and the Sheikh of Araby (pp. 229-30, 232, 239). His credo, of course, isthe worship of supply and demand and 'the right of free men to pay as much as they had to for the things they needed in order to survive' (p. 362). He began as aUriah Heep mess officer but became a huge dealer in everything, crossing all lines - including the German lines - in the name of business. (One is reminded of the roleof the capitalists in 'Oh, What a Lovely War!') He was also a master of hypocrisy: 'Milo's eyes were liquid with integrity, and his artless and uncorrupted face waslustrous with a mixture of sweat and insect repellent' (p. 251). Milo provides a perfect compliment to the unjust persecution of the chaplain in the immediatelypreceding chapter where he and the colonels devise a perfect rationalisation for his never having to fly combat missions, since his deals are so important to the wareffort. The consequence, of course, is that someone else's life will be put more at risk.It is easy to recall Catch-22 (especially as refracted through the film version) largely as black humour and to forget what a profound morality it is. It could be saidthat the whole book is constructed around the languid unravelling of the agony of Snowden's death over Avignon, the final description of which reminds one of theunbearable scene in the bomb crater in All Quiet on the Western Front, where one soldier watches another die. The story unfolds in small revelations throughout thetext, and we are not really clear about...
