Catch-22 is a novel written by Joseph Heller. Released in 1961, it tells of a soldier's battle with his higher-ups. It is one of the best-known black comedic/satirical novels and is the origin of the term "catch-22".
Characters[]
- Captain John Yossarian
rest to be added
Publisher's summary[]
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.
See also[]
| Title | Author | Release date | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slaughterhouse-Five | Kurt Vonnegut | 1969 | A blackly comedic novel set in World War II |
| The Day of the Locust | Nathanael West | 1939 | A novel with a similar blackly comedic tone |
| Gravity's Rainbow | Thomas Pynchon | 1973 | A blackly comedic novel set in World War II |
| The Naked and the Dead | Norman Mailer | 1948 | A blackly comedic novel set in World War II |
| The Twenty-Seventh City | Jonathan Franzen | 1988 | A novel inspired by this novel |
| Goodbye, Columbus | Philip Roth | 1959 | A collection with a similar blackly comedic tone |
| A Confederacy of Dunces | John Kennedy Toole | 1980 | A novel with a similar blackly comedic tone |
| American Psycho | Bret Easton Ellis | 1991 | A novel with a similar blackly comedic tone |
| Vernon God Little | D.B.C. Pierre | 2003 | A novel with a similar blackly comedic tone |
Sources[]
- Wikipedia
- Goodreads