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Catch-22

By Joseph Heller

(349)

| Paperback | 9780440204398

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Book Description

Catch-22 is one of this century's greatest works of American literature. First published m 1961, Joseph Heller's profound and compelling novel has appeared on nearly every list of must read fiction. It is a classic in every sense of the word.

Catch-22 took the war novel genre tContinue

Catch-22 is one of this century's greatest works of American literature. First published m 1961, Joseph Heller's profound and compelling novel has appeared on nearly every list of must read fiction. It is a classic in every sense of the word.

Catch-22 took the war novel genre to a new level, shocking us with its clever and disturbing style. Set in a World War II American bomber squadron off the coast of Italy, Catch-22 is the story of John Yossarian, who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. Yossarian is also trying to decode the meaning of Catch-22, a mysterious regulation that proves that insane people are really the sanest, while the supposedly sensible people are the true madmen. And this novel is full of madmen -- Colonel Cathcart, who keeps raising the number of missions the men must fly m order to finish their tour; Milo Minderbinder, a dedicated entrepreneur who bombs his own airfield when the Germans offer him an extra 6 percent; Major Major Major, whose tragedy in life is that he resembles Henry Fonda; and Major -- de Coverley, whose face is so forbidding no one has dared ask his name.

No novel before or since has matched Catch-22's intensity and brilliance in depicting the brutal insanity of war. Heller satirizes military bureaucracy with bitter, stinging humor, all the while telling the darkly comic story of Yossarian, a bombardier who refuses to die.

Nearly forty years later, Yossarian lives.

Critics

  • Yossarian Slept Here: When Joseph Heller Was Dad, the Apthorp Was Home, and Life Was a Catch-22

    A few weeks ago in this space, I had the pleasure of reviewing JUST ONE CATCH, Tracy Daugherty’s biography of Joseph Heller. Heller’s daughter Erica's sometimes scarifying, but often hilarious, memoir of life in the Heller household is a worthy compa ... (read full critics)

    bookreporter published on Tue, 6 Sep 2011

21 Reviews

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  • 6 people find this helpful

    An insane picture of the world

    Take a sane US Air Force bombardier named Yossarian and put him into the middle of World War 2 in a base at a tiny island called Pianosa in Italy. Surround him with people who are almost insane and trash up his life with inane bureaucratic hurdles. You've got Joseph Heller's Catch-22, a book which i ... (continue)

    Take a sane US Air Force bombardier named Yossarian and put him into the middle of World War 2 in a base at a tiny island called Pianosa in Italy. Surround him with people who are almost insane and trash up his life with inane bureaucratic hurdles. You've got Joseph Heller's Catch-22, a book which is both maddening and brilliant at the same time. This is a book which I can't even describe 'cause there are no words for it. It is a comical insane trip for the mind, at the same time being fodder on the current state of the world.

    Catch-22 was not an easy read. I almost gave up after the first 100 or so pages, not being able to see where the story was going. Infact what I had to really do was to just keep reading and let the extreme sarcasm and insanity of the book to sink in. The book is too long for its subject and the circular logic of Catch-22 in the dialogues are just too many and I felt that it spoils the reading. The last few chapters (starting with The Eternal City) get pretty serious and culminate with a happy ending for Yossarian. An escape for him from it all.

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    Ashwin Nanjappa said on Jun 25, 2007 about the School & Library Binding edition | Add your feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    Loved it loved it loved it... but some might not.

    I say GENIUS.
    Joseph Heller is completely nuts and trying to really follow the story will drive you nuts, too!
    There is not a single hint of chronological order. You start off thrown in the middle of a battlefield, then take a tour of the tents, get introduced to the big guy, the doctor, the 'wanna ... (continue)

    I say GENIUS.
    Joseph Heller is completely nuts and trying to really follow the story will drive you nuts, too!
    There is not a single hint of chronological order. You start off thrown in the middle of a battlefield, then take a tour of the tents, get introduced to the big guy, the doctor, the 'wannabe' Major Major Major Major (alone, the name of the guy is pure genius) and then what?
    It's all about the Catch 22!
    You'll never know anything, you'll never really understand what's going on.
    I am not saying it's one of those books "everyone should read", cause I bet a LOT of people wouldn't get past the first 10 pages (or past the first change of time and setting) cause they'd find it confusing, annoying and pointless... but if you see it on a bookshelf at the local library or at the bookstore, try and read the first few pages. See if you can deal with the story. If it strikes you at the beginning, you won't regret going on with the reading!

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    Miss Clio said on Apr 27, 2010 | Add your feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    "Catch-22" has become a common expression for any unescapable situation. Its most common formulation is this: If you are crazy, you are exempt from flying war missions. But if you ask not to fly war missions you cannot be possibly crazy.

    Funny how so small a sentence is the only thing many p ... (continue)

    "Catch-22" has become a common expression for any unescapable situation. Its most common formulation is this: If you are crazy, you are exempt from flying war missions. But if you ask not to fly war missions you cannot be possibly crazy.

    Funny how so small a sentence is the only thing many people know about this 500-pages book.
    Funny but, actually, perfectly appropriate: the paradoxical, self-contradictory nature of Catch-22 is the perfect image for the book as a whole.

    Heller really loves contradictions: the book is full of them. He also loves turning things upside down - usually with humorous outcomes - and he pulls the trick so many times that by the end of the book it starts to wear pretty thin.

    Discarding this book as petty comedy, however, would be very wrong. Despite of the stylized and exagerate portrayal of characters, it shows insightful glimpses on the human psyche and personality. Many of the contradictions Heller so thoroughly points out are actually characteristics of every one of us.

    If one can bear with the disorientating style of the narration, Catch 22 will provide an interesting read about the uncertainties of humanity.

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    Simbul said on Dec 16, 2009 | Add your feedback

  • Great book

    I finally took the time to read it and I really enjoyed the book. A bit Orwellian, very witty and different from any other book. The only slightly disappointing bit is the end... it seems not the best end, or at least I don't feel it lives up to the boldness of the rest of the book.

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    fabiodebe said on Aug 16, 2011 | Add your feedback

  • Yeah, I know this is supposed to be a classic. But when something just doesn't appeal to you, there's no point in forcing yourself to face it. Life is too short.

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    Holmes said on Mar 12, 2011 | Add your feedback

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