Genre Fiction
![Joseph Heller - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B000APVA6I.jpg)
Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition
This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller's masterpiece with a new introduction; critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos; and much more.
Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read.
Now a Hulu limited series starring Christopher Abbott, George Clooney, Kyle Chandler, and Hugh Laurie.
Fifty years after its original publication, Catch-22 remains a cornerstone of American literature and one of the funniest-and most celebrated-books of all time. In recent years it has been named to "best novels" lists by Time, Newsweek, the Modern Library, and the London Observer.
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy-it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he's assigned, he'll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.
This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller's masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller's personal archive; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.
Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read.
Now a Hulu limited series starring Christopher Abbott, George Clooney, Kyle Chandler, and Hugh Laurie.
Fifty years after its original publication, Catch-22 remains a cornerstone of American literature and one of the funniest-and most celebrated-books of all time. In recent years it has been named to "best novels" lists by Time, Newsweek, the Modern Library, and the London Observer.
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy-it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he's assigned, he'll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.
This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller's masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller's personal archive; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.
Editorial Reviews
"Catch-22 is the only war novel I've ever read that makes any sense." -Harper Lee
"One of the most bitterly funny works in the language . . . Explosive, bitter, subversive, brilliant." -The New Republic
"To my mind, there have been two great American novels in the past fifty years. Catch-22 is one." -Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly
"This novel is not merely the best American novel to come out of World War II, it is the best American novel that has come out of anywhere in years." -Nelson Algren, The Nation
"It's the rock and roll of novels . . . There's no book like it. . . . Surprisingly powerful." -Norman Mailer, Esquire
"One of the greatest anti-war books ever written." -Vanity Fair
"One of the most bitterly funny works in the language . . . Explosive, bitter, subversive, brilliant." -The New Republic
"To my mind, there have been two great American novels in the past fifty years. Catch-22 is one." -Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly
"This novel is not merely the best American novel to come out of World War II, it is the best American novel that has come out of anywhere in years." -Nelson Algren, The Nation
"It's the rock and roll of novels . . . There's no book like it. . . . Surprisingly powerful." -Norman Mailer, Esquire
"One of the greatest anti-war books ever written." -Vanity Fair
Readers Top Reviews
Margosa
This is surely one of the greatest books of all time; utterly anarchic. How much of it related to reality is a moot point although one can imagine that the American services were somewhat, shall we say, disorganised. A great read and one of the few books that produces uncontrolled laughter.
Sten VesterliR D Win
I accept that this book has a place in the American literary canon. That doesn't make it a very good book, though. The juxtaposition of absurd humor, implacable bureaucracy and the horrors of war makes for a unique storytelling approach. However, the book belabors its points and is far too long and repetitive. Not recommended.
Clairice T. VeitJ.A.
I wanted to buy the novel "Catch 22" by Joseph Heller. This book cover tells me this book is what I am looking for. I purchased it. After I received it, I learned it was NOT the novel "Catch 22". I handed it to my husband and asked him to tell me what book he was holding. From the words on the book cover, he determined he was holding the book "Catch 22". In opening the book to find the novel, however, one learns this book contains a series of people's comments and essays ABOUT Catch 22 and writing "Catch 22" NO NOVEL. Very deceitful marketing.
JenP
This book takes place in Italy during World War II. The main character is a bombardier named Yossarian. His biggest issue is with his own army that keeps increasing the number of missions they have to fly before they can go home. (It started at 30 something and at the end of the book it was 80 missions). If Yossarian attempts to excuse himself from these missions, he will be in violation of a Catch-22. This rule is: A man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved. The book deals with several complex issues in a funny way such as loss of faith, death and tyranny. I really thought I was going to hate this book. Mat had read it and felt that I would not find the humor in it. But I ended up enjoying it. It had humor that reminded me of the movie "Airplane". The dialogue went round and round and no where forward many times in this book, but that was the beauty of it. It was classic satire. I found myself smiling, if not giggling, several times during the book. (especially at the character Major Major Major Major). The absurdity of this novel has quite an appeal, and I am glad I had a chance to read it. It is silly. It is old fashioned. It is a war novel. But you simply must try it.
Short Excerpt Teaser
Catch-22 The Story of ‘Catch-22'
by Jonathan R. Eller
It shouldn't have survived the first printing. It was a first novel by a part-time writer who had published very little since the 1940s. It was a book that captured the feelings of helplessness and horror generated by the darker side of the American dream at a time when the general reading public still expected fiction to reflect a positive view of contemporary America and its hallowed institutions. The title was changed twice during presswork; as if that weren't enough, someone who thought he was portrayed in the book threatened to sue, prompting a name change for one of the main characters after almost a year in print.
But for a number of editors, advertisers, writers, and critics, reading the book echoed the opening line of the novel: "It was love at first sight." This core of avid supporters kept the novel alive in the East Coast book market until word-of-mouth praise (and overnight bestseller status in Great Britain) took it to international prominence. In time, the title Catch-22 became a part of the English language, and Joseph Heller's novel became an enduring part of American culture.
Heller was not unknown in publishing circles prior to Catch-22. His first published work appeared in the fall 1945 issue of Story, an issue dedicated to short fiction by returning servicemen. For several years after the war, he wrote what he called "New Yorker–type" stories about Jewish life in Depression-era Brooklyn. Several of these formula pieces were published in Esquire and the Atlantic Monthly while Heller was completing undergraduate work in English at NYU. These publications gained him some attention as a promising new writer, but he published no new stories after 1948-partly because they weren't selling anymore, but primarily because he was ready to move on to more universal material:
By the time I was a senior in college, I'd done a little more reading and I began to suspect that literature was more serious, more interesting than analyzing an endless string of Jewish families in the Depression. I could see that type of writing was going out of style. I wanted to write something that was very good and I had nothing good to write. So I wrote nothing.1
Instead, he began graduate studies in English at Columbia, which he would complete with an M.A. in 1949, followed by an additional year at Oxford on a Fulbright Scholarship. After two years teaching expository writing at Pennsylvania State University, Heller moved back to New York in 1952 and took a job writing for a small advertising agency, and later for Remington Rand. Graduate work provided the insight required to attempt serious literature, and Heller wanted to write a novel. The drive developed tentatively and without much outside inspiration. He was generally disappointed by the new novels of the early postwar years: "There was a terrible sameness about books being published and I almost stopped reading as well as writing." He considered the war novels of Jones, Miller, Shaw, and others quite good, but he did not at first consider his own wartime experiences as subject for fiction. Nearly thirty typescripts accumulated by 1952, but only one-the never-published "Crippled Phoenix"-offered a hint of the wartime traumas that would surface in Catch-22.
In 1953, he began a series of notecards outlining characters and a military scenario for what would become Catch-22. Certainly his wartime experiences, and those of boyhood friends like George Mandel, formed a basis for the new project. Mandel, who had been seriously wounded as an infantryman in Europe, would eventually write The Wax Boom (1962), a tough war novel that also questioned traditional army chain-of-command responses to combat situations. Mandel remained a responsive and insightful reader for Heller during the seven years that Catch-22 evolved.
A photograph from Joseph Heller's copy of the 488th Squadron's unofficial scrapbook. Heller is on the right.
But in 1953, Heller was still searching for the right form and style of expression. In literature, he found himself attracted to the innovative work of Waugh, Nabokov, and Céline for their successes in achieving the kind of effect Heller wanted. In an early post-publication interview, Heller used Nabokov's work to describe the effect he himself was searching for: "Nabokov in Laughter in the Dark takes an extremely flippant approach to situations deeply tragic and pathetic, and I began to try f...
by Jonathan R. Eller
It shouldn't have survived the first printing. It was a first novel by a part-time writer who had published very little since the 1940s. It was a book that captured the feelings of helplessness and horror generated by the darker side of the American dream at a time when the general reading public still expected fiction to reflect a positive view of contemporary America and its hallowed institutions. The title was changed twice during presswork; as if that weren't enough, someone who thought he was portrayed in the book threatened to sue, prompting a name change for one of the main characters after almost a year in print.
But for a number of editors, advertisers, writers, and critics, reading the book echoed the opening line of the novel: "It was love at first sight." This core of avid supporters kept the novel alive in the East Coast book market until word-of-mouth praise (and overnight bestseller status in Great Britain) took it to international prominence. In time, the title Catch-22 became a part of the English language, and Joseph Heller's novel became an enduring part of American culture.
Heller was not unknown in publishing circles prior to Catch-22. His first published work appeared in the fall 1945 issue of Story, an issue dedicated to short fiction by returning servicemen. For several years after the war, he wrote what he called "New Yorker–type" stories about Jewish life in Depression-era Brooklyn. Several of these formula pieces were published in Esquire and the Atlantic Monthly while Heller was completing undergraduate work in English at NYU. These publications gained him some attention as a promising new writer, but he published no new stories after 1948-partly because they weren't selling anymore, but primarily because he was ready to move on to more universal material:
By the time I was a senior in college, I'd done a little more reading and I began to suspect that literature was more serious, more interesting than analyzing an endless string of Jewish families in the Depression. I could see that type of writing was going out of style. I wanted to write something that was very good and I had nothing good to write. So I wrote nothing.1
Instead, he began graduate studies in English at Columbia, which he would complete with an M.A. in 1949, followed by an additional year at Oxford on a Fulbright Scholarship. After two years teaching expository writing at Pennsylvania State University, Heller moved back to New York in 1952 and took a job writing for a small advertising agency, and later for Remington Rand. Graduate work provided the insight required to attempt serious literature, and Heller wanted to write a novel. The drive developed tentatively and without much outside inspiration. He was generally disappointed by the new novels of the early postwar years: "There was a terrible sameness about books being published and I almost stopped reading as well as writing." He considered the war novels of Jones, Miller, Shaw, and others quite good, but he did not at first consider his own wartime experiences as subject for fiction. Nearly thirty typescripts accumulated by 1952, but only one-the never-published "Crippled Phoenix"-offered a hint of the wartime traumas that would surface in Catch-22.
In 1953, he began a series of notecards outlining characters and a military scenario for what would become Catch-22. Certainly his wartime experiences, and those of boyhood friends like George Mandel, formed a basis for the new project. Mandel, who had been seriously wounded as an infantryman in Europe, would eventually write The Wax Boom (1962), a tough war novel that also questioned traditional army chain-of-command responses to combat situations. Mandel remained a responsive and insightful reader for Heller during the seven years that Catch-22 evolved.
A photograph from Joseph Heller's copy of the 488th Squadron's unofficial scrapbook. Heller is on the right.
But in 1953, Heller was still searching for the right form and style of expression. In literature, he found himself attracted to the innovative work of Waugh, Nabokov, and Céline for their successes in achieving the kind of effect Heller wanted. In an early post-publication interview, Heller used Nabokov's work to describe the effect he himself was searching for: "Nabokov in Laughter in the Dark takes an extremely flippant approach to situations deeply tragic and pathetic, and I began to try f...
