Staff Pick
The book that coined the term, Catch 22 parses the paradoxes of war and bureaucracy with laugh-out-loud satire and gallows humor on an American air base in Italy during WWII. Recommended By Moses M., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Catch-22 is like no other novel. It is one of the funniest books ever written, a keystone work in American literature, and even added a new term to the dictionary.
At the heart of Catch-22 resides the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero endlessly inventive in his schemes to save his skin from the horrible chances of war. His efforts are perfectly understandable because as he furiously scrambles, thousands of people he hasn't even met are trying to kill him. His problem is Colonel Cathcart, who keeps raising the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempts to excuse himself from the perilous missions that he is committed to flying, he is trapped by the Great Loyalty Oath Crusade, the hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule from which the book takes its title: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes the necessary formal request to be relieved of such missions, the very act of making the request proves that he is sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.
Catch-22 is a microcosm of the twentieth-century world as it might look to some one dangerously sane a masterpiece of our time.
Review
Robert Brustein The New Republic One of the most bitterly funny works in the language...explosive, bitter, subversive, brilliant.
Synopsis
Joseph Heller's manic, bleak, blackly humorous, and brilliant novel has become a classic of American literature, and Catch-22 has entered the language as a term describing a no-win situation. Set during the last months of World War II, Heller's novel tells the story of a bombardier, the hapless Yossarian, who is convinced quite rightly, of course that people are trying to kill him.
About the Author
Joseph Heller lives with his wife in East Hampton, New York. He is also the author of Closing Time and other novels.