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Catch-22 (Paperback)

~ (Author) "It was love at first sight..." (more)
Key Phrases: bloated colonel, tighter bomb pattern, intelligence tent, Colonel Cathcart, Major Major, Colonel Korn (more...)
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (815 customer reviews)
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  Hardcover, October 16, 1995 $16.32 $14.26 $6.17
  Paperback, September 3, 1996 $10.88 $4.00 $2.61
  Mass Market Paperback, February 29, 1980 -- $9.95 $1.85
  Audio, CD, Audiobook, Unabridged $34.16 $24.92 $19.99

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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.

Yossarian says, "You're talking about winning the war, and I am talking about winning the war and keeping alive."
"Exactly," Clevinger snapped smugly. "And which do you think is more important?"
"To whom?" Yossarian shot back. "It doesn't make a damn bit of difference who wins the war to someone who's dead."
"I can't think of another attitude that could be depended upon to give greater comfort to the enemy."
"The enemy," retorted Yossarian with weighted precision, "is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on."
Mirabile dictu, the book holds up post-Reagan, post-Gulf War. It's a good thing, too. As long as there's a military, that engine of lethal authority, Catch-22 will shine as a handbook for smart-alecky pacifists. It's an utterly serious and sad, but damn funny book.



From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. It would be difficult to imagine richer material for an audiobook reader, comedically speaking, than Joseph Heller's classic novel of wartime madness. Sanders is the lucky actor chosen to read Heller's masterpiece, and he does well by it, proceeding gamely through the novel's staggering array of comic set pieces and deliriously woozy dialogue. Heller's humor is straight-faced, requiring little more than a steady, sure voice, and Sanders offers just that. Line by line, joke by joke, Sanders reels through the marvelous phantasmagoria of Heller's World War II, tongue planted firmly in cheek. Caedmon's impressive package includes a 1970s-era recording of Heller reading selections from his book. Heller is a delightful contrast to Sanders, his slight lisp accentuating a marvelous Brooklyn accent. Heller reads as if with cigar perched on his lip and turns his novel into an extended borscht belt comic's riff.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (September 4, 1996)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0684833395
  • ISBN-13: 978-0684833392
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 4.9 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (815 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,103 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #1 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( H ) > Heller, Joseph
    #39 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > General > Classics
    #62 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics

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Joseph Heller
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Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
It was love at first sight. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
bloated colonel, tighter bomb pattern, intelligence tent, more combat missions, sei pazzo, sixty missions, seventy missions, illegal tobacco, railroad ditch, bomb line, forty missions, flak suit, group chaplain, lead bombardier, fifty missions, medical tent
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Colonel Cathcart, Major Major, Colonel Korn, Doc Daneeka, Hungry Joe, General Dreedle, Major Danby, General Peckem, Corporal Whitcomb, Captain Black, Chief White Halfoat, Lieutenant Scheisskopf, Nurse Duckett, Major de Coverley, Sergeant Towser, Washington Irving, Kid Sampson, Colonel Cargill, Nurse Cramer, Colonel Moodus, Major Sanderson, Colonel Scheisskopf, Captain Flume, Henry Fonda, Corporal Snark
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815 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (815 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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103 of 113 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A stunning masterpiece on every level, November 10, 2002
By Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
CATCH-22 is masterful in so many ways. It begins as comic farce, proceeds to the increasingly surreal, and then transforms into a nightmarish tragedy before ending triumphantly. No novel that I know so successfully blends all these disparate moods. I believe it was Hugh Walpole who wrote, "Life is a comedy to those who think, and a tragedy to those who feel." No book illustrates that better than this novel. This truly is one of the funniest books I have ever read. It is also one of the most tragic.

CATCH-22 also introduces one of the most insane collection of great characters in fiction: Yossarian, the Chaplain, Orr, ex-P.F.C Wintergreen, Milo Minderbender, Maj. Major Major Major, Nately, Doc Daneeka, Danby, General Dreedle, Nately's girl (not the description in the book, but Amazon's software will bleep it), Cathcart, Nurse Duckett, The Texan, Major ----- de Coverley, The Soldier in White, and a host of other characters. It is one of the most gloriously populated novels of the past half century.

This is a novel I can almost not discuss except through superlatives: greatest war novel I have read, funniest novel I have ever read, greatest English language novel of the past 40 years. But the best thing is that it is, on top of being a superb book, an exceedingly fun book to read. Even at its nightmarish, this is a fun, delightful book. And few novels contain as many unforgetable moments as this one.

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169 of 193 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the 100 best American novels, July 3, 2002
By Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)      
We read "Catch-22" in our "alternative" high school back in the 60's. It was just as the Viet Nam War was rising to its shocking crest, people were rioting in the streets, the young were questioning everything and rebelling, the draft was taking older brothers and friends, and it was a very crazy time. We asked the teacher who selected the novel and who had served in World War II "Is this an accurate representation of the madness of war?" He replied that, in his experience, it was.

After recently re-reading Heller's novel, I realized that this book wasn't, as we had studied it, just about the madness of war. Sure, that was foremost on our minds at the time the book was published. But Heller really caught the moral dilemma of an individual caught up in the mob hysteria of war, where the rules of civilization and laws are temporarily and deliberately suspended by the authorities.

The key paragraph, for me, is: "Man was matter, that was Snowden's secret. Drop him out a window and he'll fall. Set fire to him and he'll burn. Bury him and he'll rot, like other kinds of garbage. That was Snowden's secret. Ripeness was all." In other words, Man is no more than meat and bone EXCEPT for a brief period when he is alive...and if he does something to preserve his soul. This is deep and perceptive.

At the end of "Catch-22", Yossarian is faced with a tempting choice. He has, however, learned something from the horrors and insanity. His decision takes into account not only his personal safety, but goes beyond to the greater good. He has risen.

For that reason, "Catch-22" is more than just an amusing novel, a bestseller and the novel that gave birth to M*A*SH*. Yossarian's moral dilemma is one each of us must ponder, whenever we choose to go to war. I think this is one of the best 100 American novels.

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29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Catching 22 Twice, July 21, 2006
For so many of us growing up in the USA, our high school teachers assigned us Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" as required reading, and I was among those assignees. I'm not sure why the requirement, other than perhaps some Catch-22 type of logic that everyone else was assigning it, so there, must be great, must read. I don't particularly remember liking the novel then, perhaps with no more substantial of a reason than -- just not my style. Reading the novel now, in midlife, my opinion (or my literary style) has changed little, but today, I can attempt to add to "not my style" perhaps a few deeper insights.

In this second read, I realize what so fails to appeal to me is Heller's slapstick, absurdist, repetitive and dizzyingly circular style of storytelling. At the same time, I fully realize this is also the appeal of the novel for many: it's absurdity. Indeed, time has tested Heller's topic of war having little logic or reason in the real world, mostly born of individual and governmental insanity, power plays and mere whim, male ego clashing and chest thumping. Few wars seem to have good reason for happening when one considers all the other possibilities of resolution. While leaders sit safely in secure offices on fortressed hilltops, the common soldier takes all the risks, offers up his/her body for battering, endures indescribable torments in battle, and often gives the ultimate sacrifice of life. Shall we debate the virtues of boxing rings for political leaders instead? Yes, war is absurd. And Heller captures this "crazy-making" truth in a crazy-making novel in which characters dance to illogical commands, spin in frustration, and dig themselves in ever deeper as they try harder and harder to dig themselves out. You know... as in war.

So I slogged through the pages like a good soldier. Characters leapt forward and backward in time, one event led to no other event, resolution rarely made a showing, and the dance of insanity kept the main lead. Even as I slogged, I could not deny what an excellent reflection of warring reality Heller's writing proved to be. Kudos for that. Redeeming factor.

And then, somewhere towards the final pages, I was somewhat won over. Without losing his voice of absurdity, the author had Yossarian, key player, say lines so absurd they rang true to the core, e.g. "but we don't want what we want!" and I could only shake my head and echo, oh indeed. We don't. When offered a bounty of temptations to sell out his soul, Yossarian denied them all, and in his crazy way, spoke utter sanity. How common is it to want something desperately much of our lives, only to realize we don't want it at all when fantasy turns into reality? A gold star for the author. Other episodes of Yossarian struggling to keep a fellow soldier alive even as his guts spill out, the sheer horror and despair and helplessness of the situation, hit target. Bravo.

This, and Heller's commentaries on man being little more than meat, fodder for the brutalities of war, resounded with such painful truth that today's reader can only look up at current events and current disasters and realize -- we are living in a world ruled by absurdities even today. History has taught us nothing.

And so, I could be convinced that Heller's novel is a classic. Perhaps it is.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars A disappointing book.
I just finished reading this book, and it was definitely a chore. I was very disappointed with it because it's widely hailed as a great and 'hilarious' work of classic fiction and... Read more
Published 8 days ago by Tyler M.

5.0 out of 5 stars oustanding book
This is quite simply a fantastic book and a must read for anyone who appreciates modern classic fiction. Funny, insightful and tragic. Read more
Published 11 days ago by shanee

5.0 out of 5 stars Still crazy, still brilliant
I first read Catch-22 in high school, and ever since have held it to be my all-time favorite book. So it was with some trepidation that I cracked it back open as an adult. Read more
Published 25 days ago by Joshua Mauthe

5.0 out of 5 stars "That's the way things go when you elevate mediocre people to positions of authority"
Perhaps the greatest satire on war, "Catch-22" presents many characters with extraordinary personalities, the most important of whom is Yossarian. Read more
Published 1 month ago by The Down-Word Spiral

4.0 out of 5 stars A bit much at times, but still a must-read!
What is there to say about a book that so many before me have reviewed? My take on Catch-22 is that it is hilarious, eye-opening, and a bit disturbing (but just a bit). Read more
Published 1 month ago by Tara Walker

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Enjoyable
This book is total satire and irony concerning WWII, combined with a dose of sobering morality along the way. This book will make you will laugh, and just maybe, cry. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Sargon

1.0 out of 5 stars Too many characters, Too many mini-stories, Too many nonesense
I personally don't read that many books, but this is one of the worst books I ever read. First, they're are too many characters. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Scott Bronner

4.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic read
A few years ago I attempted to read this book, but gave up after about 100 pages. I picked the book up again and finally I was able to read the entire book. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kevin Beals

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I got my order very quickly, and it was in perfect condition! I would definitely recommend this seller.
Published 2 months ago by B. Martin

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic!
What a read, hilarity and substance that goes beyond the humor to delve into the reality of being stuck in a no win situation.
Published 2 months ago by Christopher Vitto

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