Desert Island books

CATCH 22
by Joseph Heller

Catch 22 is the sort of book you always hear about and somehow associate with 1960s cult classics, promising yourself that someday, when you have the time, you'll give it a try and experience what those angst-ridden students in black polo-necks felt. That was what I thought before I actually got down to reading it. It's actually a hilarious novel set during World War II. A small island off the Italian coast serves as a backdrop where an American airforce base mimics the modern world in a highly concentrated cross-section of eccentricity and sheer madness. Captain John Yossarian feigns insanity to escape the horrors of a war which haunts his dreams. Together with an increasingly quirky set of characters, the reader's relative sanity is tested by the characters' antics. The cynicism with which bureaucracy is portrayed contrasts heavily with the horrors of war presented in a detailed realistic manner which jars with the ridiculous tone generally pervading the book. Its message rings true to our present situation - the futility of war and its devastating aftermath can never be redeemed.

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DADDY LONG LEGS
by Jean Webster

What intrigued me most when I first started reading Jean Webster's epistolary novel was that the introductory chapter was entitled Blue Wednesday. I had just started secondary school at St Aloysius' College and anything remotely related to Wednesday piqued my interest. Intelligent and witty Judy Abbott is a 17-year-old orphan whose extremely well written, if a tad cheeky, essay ends up being discussed by the board of trustees at her orphanage.

One of them recognises Judy's potential and decides to send her away to college to become a writer. His one request is that he remains anonymous and that Judy writes to him at least once a month telling him of her progress.

All she knows is that, having seen his shadow silhouetted against the setting sun in the entrance hall of the orphanage, he's a tall man. Judy's adventures at college thus begin and the social faux pas and increasing accomplishments of an innocent, provincial girl thrown into a world of luxury are recounted to the benefactor whom she decides to call affectionately "Daddy Long Legs".

This is a heart-warming book which blends simplicity with determination and humour.

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PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
by Jane Austen

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Georgian novel written by a young English woman of very little fortune has been voted by the British as the nation's favourite book. I fully agree. I first read Pride and Prejudice when I was 13 and undeterred by what seemed at the time a rather stiff, formal style, I sailed through it. Since then I must have read it at least five times.

This book introduced me to a whole new concept of style. I was impressed by the fact that the characters come to life not so much by their realistic descriptions but by the quality of the language they use.

Austen manages to give an overview of English society at the time of the Napoleonic Wars in such a crisp, witty manner that she leaves us in no doubt that her opinions on love and societal expectations were ahead of her time.

It also helped that the BBC version which left so many girls drooling over Colin Firth as Mr Darcy, also provided me with my first teenage crush on the delightful Jennifer Ehle, who played my favourite heroine - Elizabeth Bennet. To this day I still rather like it when my girlfriend does her hair with a central parting.

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THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN
by John Fowles

Having previously read Fowles's The Magus and The Collector, I went on to read The French Lieutenant's Woman with some misgivings. I had thoroughly enjoyed the first two and I was rather inclined to think that his most popular novel had been hyped up by the Meryl Streep film.

Steeling myself against disappointment in an author who had become one of my favourites, I started the first chapter and realised that I had been wrong. The story, based entirely on the notion of historiographic metafiction, revolves around the mysterious Sarah Woodruff, a woman living in disgrace in the small fishing village of Lyme Regis and the fascination which she excites in Charles Smithson, a gentleman who is engaged to a wealthy businessman's daughter.

Fowles created a book which is not only rich in intertextual references but also explores the idea of a text which is conscious of itself and its power by commenting directly on what the plotline in the book is and considering several possible ways in which it could develop.

By doing so, he manages to capture all the fine details of Victorian realism while insightfully commenting on the 20th century belief in choice and freedom and how they are gradually being eroded.

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LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA
by Gabriel Garcia Márquez

Gabriel Garcia Márquez's One Hundered Years of Solitude very aptly kept me company during my final exams.

However it is Love in the Time of Cholera which I feel particularly tied to. I began reading this profoundly touching book at the start of my relationship with my fiancée and used to text her extracts from it in a pseudo-intellectual form of flirting - I thought it was better than naughty e-mails.

This is another one of those books which I enjoy for the fact that it encapsulates the entire range of human emotions, transitioning from funny moments to passionate encounters and adolescent daydreams to the rationality of experience.

These come to life thanks to the narrative genius of an author who blends compassion with humour while reminding us that the possibilities of love are as endless as it is strong.

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• Mr Delicata is a teacher and freelance writer, with a Master's degree in English Literature.

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