Catch 22 is an all time classic by Joseph Heller who in his sardonic sense of humour tell the story of Captain John Yossarian, stationed at an airstrip on a Mediterranean island in World War II, and portrays his desperate attempts to stay alive. The novel was first published in 1961 and has sold millions of copies since then.

The catch in ‘Catch 22′ involves an Air Force regulation which considers a man as insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions. To be relieved from the dangerous combat duty, one has to make a formal request. But if one make the necessary request the very act of making the request proves that he is sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

The term catch-22 thereafter entered the English language with the meaning ” a frustrating situation in which one is trapped by contradictory regulations or conditions.” and later developed several additional senses. In 1994 Heller published a sequel entitled Closing Time, which details the current lives of the characters established in Catch-22.

There was a time when reading Joseph Heller’s classic satire on the murderous insanity of war was nothing less than a rite of passage. Echoes of Yossarian, the wise-ass bombardier who was too smart to die but not smart enough to find a way out of his predicament, could be heard throughout the counterculture. As a result, it’s impossible not to consider Catch-22 to be something of a period piece. But 40 years on, the novel’s undiminished strength is its looking-glass logic. Again and again, Heller’s characters demonstrate that what is commonly held to be good, is bad; what is sensible, is nonsense.

Catch-22 is a novel of enormous richness and art. It is deeply serious, yet funny – brilliantly and uniquely funny. It is without question one of the great novels of the century. As a reviewer in Financial Times put it ” blessedly, monstrously, bloatedly, cynically funny and fantastically unique. No one has ever written a book like this.”

Book Details:

Author(s): Joseph Heller
Publisher: Dell Publishing Company
Edition & Year: First, 1979
ISBN: 0684833395
Cover & Page Count: Paperback, 570 pages

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