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. 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 About the bookin the wake of world war ii, captain john yossarian is a bombardier in the 256th squadron of the army air forces located on the island of pianosa, in the mediterranean sea. The squadron has been assigned to bomb enemy posts in eastern france and italy. But in a raid over avignon in july, a comrade gets killed during a bombing run, leaving yossarian in severe trauma. Yossarian tries his best to stay on the ground and far away from flying as possible. While time passes, many men are sent home for rest and recovery - more men around yossarian succumb to violent deaths. Yossarian only wishes to survive the war as he is convinced that everyone from the germans to his superior officers are attempting to kill him. He plans to return home after his last mission due to the dangers involved, but colonel cathcart assigns more and more missions for him and his men in his squadron. Will yossarian find a way to escape this mad world he is stuck in? or will he find his way at the bottom Catch-22 is like no other novel. It has its own rationale, its own extraordinary character. It moves back and forth from hilarity to horror. It is outrageously funny and strangely affecting. It is totally original. Set in the closing months of World War II in an American bomber squadron off Italy, Catch-22 is the story of a bombardier named Yossarian, who is frantic and furious because thousands of people he hasn't even met keep trying to kill him. Catch-22 is a microcosm of the twentieth-century world as it might look to someone dangerously sane. It is a novel that lives and moves and grows with astonishing power and vitality -- a masterpiece of our time. - Back cover. Reading Joseph Heller's classic satire is nothing less than a rite of passage.Set in the closing months of World War II in an American bomber squadron off the coast of Italy, Catch-22 is the story of a bombardier named Yossarian who is frantic and furious because thousands of people he has never even met keep trying to kill him. Set during World War II in 1943, the novel follows Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier, and a number of other characters