Catch-22

Product Details

Author : Joseph Heller
Binding : Paperback
EAN : 9780099477310
Edition : New edition
Number of Pages : 576
Product Group : Book
Publication Date : 1994-10-06
Publisher : Vintage

ASIN : 0099477319

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Editorial Reviews

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

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.

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

Joseph Heller was born in 1923 in Brooklyn, New York. He served as a bombardier in the Second World War and then attended New York University and Columbia University and then Oxford, the last on a Fullbright scholarship. He then taught for two years at Pennsylvania State University, before returning to New York, where he began a successful career in the advertising departments of Time, Look and McCall's magazines. It was during this time that he had the idea for Catch-22. Working on the novel in spare moments and evenings at home, it took him eight years to complete and was first published in 1961. His second novel, Something Happened was published in 1974, Good As Gold in 1979 and Closing Time in 1994. He is also the author of the play We Bombed in New Haven. Joseph Heller is an honorary fellow of St. Catherine's College, Oxford, which he visits periodically to meet students who are writing fiction. He lives in East Hampton, New York

Customer Reviews

Stunning (2008-09-03)

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 (2008-08-29)

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... (2008-08-28)

...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.

One of three (2008-06-24)

Believe it or not, my parents recommended this book to me. All I can say is, for once they were right. I've only read two other books that so blew me away in their conception and execution and those were "Clockwork Orange" and "Katzenjammer" by McCrae. But even those can't compare to "Catch 22. What a wild ride this well crafted book is. To say it's thought-provoking is a cliche, but there it is. Sort of like "1984" probably was before 1984. Some have likened this to MASH and the Korean war, and I can see those similarities, but the book is really meant to be read on a much broader level; a level of humanity in general and not one specific event or time period. The book is funny and challenging, but that seems to me to be what one would be looking for in a great novel. There's reason this book has been around for eons--it's simply a great novel that holds up to the test of time.

Precursor of MASH and more (2008-05-20)

This is the original (at least in terms of modern relevance) satire of modern warfare and decision making. However, it achieves a level of humour very rarely achieved elsewhere. It is a very personal book, and some of the personal touch, sidesplitting jokes, and very dark serious undercurrent make this resonate more with me than some of the other great "political / moral" satires - Animal Farm and 1984 after all can leave you feeling somewhat cold.

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