LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Between Hot Topics and celebrity guests, ‘The View’ has started a temporary segment for the summer, called ‘The ladies get lit.’ In this segment, each of the co-hosts shares some of their favorite books that they would recommend to their viewers, and is also a part of their must-read list. The most recent recommender was none other than Joy Behar, who is a big fan of banned books.
In the latest segment, Behar recommended two books, but one was definitely more controversial than the other, and she spent a good amount of time talking about it. The book she recommended was the controversial book, ‘Catch-22’ by Joseph Heller.
‘It’s a target today’
Behar, who moderated the segment, announced it to her co-hosts, “This whole week, each co-host is giving her summer reading list in a series we call ladies get lit, very clever. So today, I am showing you my picks, I have a couple of books I am recommending to read. One of them is the great classic, Catch-22, by Joseph Heller. His books have been around a long time, its been banned and challenged many many times over the years. People are very aggravated with this most brilliant classic.” Behar held the book up for the viewers to see before she continued, “It’s a target today, as a matter of fact, and recently was pulled out for review in Florida, for Orange County Public Schools, because of sexual material.” Behar rolled her eyes, “Duh! Every book has sexual material unless it’s a children's book.”
Joy Behar explains the aggravation
“Three years ago, school board members in Palmer, Alaska, Sarah Palin’s town, voted 5-2 to remove this book as it was identified as controversial…oooh. This is the book, it is set in Italy, during World War II, it’s a satirical book.” Behar then explained why people might be aggravated over ‘Catch-22,’ “I think people are aggravated because it takes on the military, you know? And um, they didn’t like that. It's about a bombardier named Yossarian who takes on the military, but it’s funny, it’s a very funny book.” Behar also labels ‘Catch-22’ as late Joseph Heller’s best work.
