Product Description

At the heart of Joseph Heller's bestselling novel, first published in 1961, is a satirical indicement of military madness and stupidity, and the desire of the ordinary man to survive it. It is a tale of the dangerously sane Captain Yossarian, who spends his time in Italy plotting to survive.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #496 in Books
• Published on: 1994-10-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

Review
Catch-22 has been canonized since its first modest print run of 30,000 copies. It spoke to the Vietnam generation in 1961 with its savage, masculine humour and heartfelt indictment of the grotesque lunacy of warfare. The eponymous Catch-22 states that a man can be exempted from bombing missions if he is mad, but that the desire to be exempted is proof that he is sane. (It would have crept into the English language as Catch-18 but for Leon Uris's novel Mila 18 - Heller wanted to avoid possible mix-ups.) The cavortings of Captain Yossarian with officers, men and Roman prostitutes on the island of Pianosa drive the plot as he desperately tries to reason his way out of imminent death. (Kirkus UK)

Observer
The greatest satirical work in the English language since EREHWON

Chicago Times
An apocalyptic masterpiece

Customer Reviews

Stunning
I must have read this novel at least ten times in my life and it conforms to my criterion for greatness: every time I read it: it changes. I read it every three or four years and the experiences I have gained since the last reading changes it, in many,varied and subtle ways.

For me, it is the most important twentieth-century novel.

Papier-marmite
I will start by saying that I simply can not understand how so many people have got so much out of this book.

Being a fan of the hilarious 'Flashman papers' by George MacDonald Fraser, I thought I would give this a try, it being something completely different and having many rave reviews.

After beginning to read it, there were a couple of genuinely funny moments in the first ten to fifteen chapters, but after that, the humour just bored me and made the book a complete chore to read.

Granted, Heller has some very valid points that he makes in the book about the absurdity of humans going to war and the process of fighting itself. However, upon finishing the book, I just felt that the entire thing had been a muddle and the humour really did not appeal to me at all.

One of the most infuriating points I found was that I absolutely hated every character in the whole book. I just could not feel for any of them. They were all annoying and about a third of the way through the book I was hoping Yossarian would just get shot down and have done with it.

Oh yes, and the ridiculous names of all the characters was another niggle of mine. It may have been funny when this book was first published but it really hasn't aged well.

This book, judging from the reviews on this site, is obviously the closest thing to papier-marmite as you can get. You really will either love it or absolutely hate it.

Begin reading with caution - it's a long book!

Buying this for the second time...
...because I have just worn out my first copy. Although this book is superficially about the end of the second world war, the central theme of losing control of one's destiny is surely more relevant today than it has ever been. For anyone struggling to find context for this book I would suggest reading the author's memoirs, Now and Then: From Coney Island to Here.