Major –– de Coverley is mentioned as captured and then forgotten about for the rest of the miniseries, one more example of how people can just disappear during wartime. In an extended bit of humor that’s been added to the series, Laurie’s character turns up at a Nazi meeting and vanishes in Bologna after finding out that the city was not actually taken by the Germans, the bad intel coming from Yossarian moving the bomb line. The miniseries: Played by Hugh Laurie in a sort of glorified cameo, he has an intimidating presence but no eyepatch. He intimidates the men on base and even breaks a long term of required oath-signing at the mess hall when he simply declares, “Gimme Eat!” Major –– de Coverley is most known for securing apartments for American officers after the front lines have taken over new cities, and he vanishes in Florence after Yossarian adjusts a bomb line on a base map. The book: So mysterious that no one even knows his first name, Major –– de Coverley is considered by the men to be “a colossus” with “a lion’s mane of hair” and a transparent eyepatch. He is called Yossarian from time to time, but there is much less emphasis on his name being a further isolating trait. The miniseries: From the very beginning, he’s referred to as “Yo-Yo,” and there is little mention of his Assyrian background. His Assyrian background is a point of contention, and his name is reviled as being “odious” and “a name that does not inspire confidence.” He is only referred to as “Yo-Yo” toward the end of the book, by young new tent mates whom he doesn’t like.

The book: Yossarian’s name makes him stand out from his peers with their more American-sounding surnames.

The structural changes downplay the purposeful chaos of the book’s organization, and mean the series is populated with fewer of the incessant, obvious contradictions that define the experience of reading Heller’s novel. Flashbacks are excised, and the story rearranges some key events to create an arc of Yossarian’s spirit being progressively broken, and adds a completely different ending. The miniseries: The series is told mostly chronologically, though it does start with a traumatic event (Snowden’s death) that is finally referenced in the sixth and final episode of the miniseries. This non-chronological storytelling puts the focus on the emotional arc that takes Yossarian from the first time we see him in a hospital through his final flight to Sweden. The turmoil of memory often dictates when sequences are referenced, with one incident suddenly leading to the telling of another in the past. The book: Heller’s arrangement of the events that befall central soldier Yossarian does not lend itself to a tidy sequential narrative rather, it comprises certain episodes, like Snowden’s death, that are referred back to and later elaborated on.

Catch 22 book explained